Michelle Duggar, 43, the matriarch on TLC’s weekly reality show “18 Kids and Counting,” is currently pregnant with her 19th child due this spring. She was airlifted to an Arkansas hospital this weekend after a medical scare in which she was experiencing pain and early contractions. It turned out that she just had gallstones and that the baby was fine. She was kept in the hospital for observation, though:
The pregnant 18 Kids and Counting mom, whose 19th child is due this spring, was rushed to an Arkansas hospital over the weekend after experiencing contractions—which, as it turned out, were triggered by a gallstone.
“The pain from a gallstone was generating some contractions,” read a statement released Monday by TLC. “Just to be safe, she was airlifted [to] a Little Rock, Ark., hospital, so that in the unlikely event that she had to be delivered early, she would be close to a NICU [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit] center. Though there were some fears that the baby was in trouble initially, it soon was discovered to be solely the gallstone causing the discomfort. Michelle is resting comfortably, and the baby is doing
fine.”The 43-year-old wife, mom and grandma is still in the hospital under observation, just to be safe.
[From E! Online]
It’s not surprising that Michelle also happens to be pregnant while she’s having a medical issue. She’s been pregnant more than half her adult life.
I hope that everything is ok with Michelle and that the baby turns out fine. Honestly I don’t know I feel about these people, though. I understand the criticism that they’re irresponsibly promoting huge families and overpopulating the planet. They seem so harmless and kind in interviews though and I’ve often marveled at how content they are. It’s like their lives should be a logistical nightmare but somehow they’re always chill and happy. While I was wondering whether I’m pro-Duggar or not I watched an episode of their show on YouTube, below, which aired in June, 2009. The family goes skating at an indoor rink for one of the kids’ birthdays and it all goes off without a hitch. The main conflict involves convincing one of the teenage girls and their grandmother to skate. After watching it, I’m warming up to the Duggars. Say what you will about their massive environmental impact and anti-Science Christian conservative home schooling, they’re definitely happy. That said, is it so wrong that I want to see some kind of cheating scandal with this family?
18 Kids and Counting: Duggars On Wheels Part 1
18 Kids and Counting: Duggars On Wheels Part 2 (Note: they sing an alternate Jesus-y “Happy Birthday” here, but that may be due to copyright issues with the actual “Happy Birthday” song.)
Lots of action today on the hospital front. Hope all is well with her.
Her body is probably telling her to quit with the pregnancies already. I have had two kids and do not know how she has managed to do this 19 times. Pregnancy sucks! I’ve always been impressed with how they are completely self-sufficient though. They are debt free, live within their means and teach their kids to be responsible people. That’s three steps ahead of Octomom.
I hope they’ll both be okay. I don’t watch the show on a regular basis because just watching all those kids on TV exhausts me, they have a great handle on it, I think, and to each their own I guess.
GROSS these people are just gross. Pregnancy addiction.
Gosh, I wonder if having 20 babies is hard on your body.
I hope she is ok, also she may want to consider this a sign.
@e: They just hold a different set of beliefs than most of us do. However I don’t think that makes them gross.
Oh I don’t doubt there will scandal one day, CB. What kind of impossible odds would it take to have 19 kids and none of them get into some kind of trouble? Not to mention the 1 in 10 theory… if one or two of those kids is gay, I bet there’ll be drama. (I doubt they’d air it, though)
I used to get icked out by the Duggars, but I think they kind of mellowed out a little with their exposure to the public, and now I find myself rooting for them.
Hope she & the baby are well – but ENOUGH ALREADY!!! Take care of the kids you already have.
@ atticus – ITA! I have 2 girls, and pg def sucks. But I hope when this woman is in for the delivery she tells them to go ahead and take out her gall bladder because gall bladder episodes HURT. Actually while she’s at it she should also tell them to take out her uterus.
ADDED****
I know people will say that an OB doesn’t take out your gall bladder, but she’s in Arkansas. I live about 2 hours from there and vacation there all the time. Love it. But health care here is NOTHING like urban health care, and I’ve lived in a lot of cities. Actually the Ozarks is frustrating as hell to find health care. Big shortage. If anyone knows an MD that’s looking to move, this is the place.
Hhhhh, sigh. That song. I grew up in a church that sang that instead of “Happy Birthday”. It has nothing to do with copyright issues, it’s all about making your own “Christiany” version of everything. This way they are “truer” Christians by putting Jesus in everything. What people like this miss is that “God created” this world as is and we are made to use and enjoy it. We don’t have to make it more “Jesusy”. This is where the Duggars really bug me and that they are trying to populate the earth with this mindset. It’s not wrong, necessarily, just stupid.
I just don’t get the whole 18 kids thing. That seems to be taking the be fruitful and multiply mission a bit too far. 😉
People/families who seem to have their sh*t together are always going to annoy some. I’m not sure why either, but yeah – they seem harmless enough. I hope they continue to do well, but there’s something about them that seems sorta creepy. I can’t put my finger on it. But I prefer them and Octo over those Gosselin parents.
CadieBelle, where are they not taking care of the kids they have? I haven’t ever seen that written about them.
I think I saw maybe three or four episodes probably two babies ago, and they seemed like a really sweet family. They were in the process of building their new house and at the time, I thought it was really nice the way all the kids chipped in to make it go smoothly.
They seemed like a genuinely nice family. A genuinely nice HUGE family, but they did seem to really love each other and love their lifestyle, even if it’s not for everyone (me included).
That said, the pain she was feeling was probably her uterus trying to run away.
I meant to include in my post that a gallbladder attack while pregnant must be horrible. I had my first attack when my second child was 2 weeks old and thought I was dying. I finally had to have it removed and I can’t imagine being that sick WHILE pregnant.
speaking on the “enviornmental impact” of this post, isnt it fair to say that one person who lives in a gigantic mansion (such as every other celebrity that you post on) and who drives him/herself around in a fancy expensive car would have the same “enviornmental impact” as this family who recycles, carpools and lives in a smaller house than any other “celebrity” does?
There is no WAY that Dad has time to cheat on his wife!! And besides, he’s clearly getting quite a bit of action at home anyways. 😉
I love Michelle, I was relieved to hear that she and the baby were ok
I was thinking the other day that if each of their kids has only half as many kids as they do, they will have almost 200 grandchildren, if not more. How will they even know all their names? I agree, though, that they seem pretty nice and I have a hard time hating them.
I don’t get why big families would gross anyone out. (Maybe that’s because my grandparents come from a family of 18 and 8 respectively). But if you have the means to take care of them, take care of them well, and they aren’t all from one pregnancy (that’s the big ick for me) then I don’t see the problem with it.
I have a bigger problem with them being all ‘we are in the world but not of the world’ and then trying to do a poll for the new babies name in People magazine. And constantly being on tv. Oh and thinking that 2 parents who didn’t go to college can possibly effectively homeschool 18 kids from pre-k through 12th grade in one room in a few hours every day.
Her uterus finally has quit that bitch.
My concern is that her body may be begging for a break and she’s not listening. I have a friend like that. She’s not even 30 and has 7 children. She and her husband believe the wife is his tree and children are his fruit. She just lost baby number 8, resulting in the loss of one of her tubes. You would think she’d take that as a sign. NOPE, she wants to keep going. Your body is asking for a break. Please listen.
The thing that bothers me about this family is that the older children pretty much raise the younger children. I can’t imagine that the parents have the time to give their children the individual attention that they need.
I thought it was going to be that her uterus finally went on strike. It should.
Gallstones are actually pretty common in pregnancy…
This story baffles me. Mama and Papa Duggar has stated many times before that she does not visit the doctor or get checkups while she is pregnant because she believes god has a plan for her and whatever happens, happens. So why now are they okay with staying at the hospital? I don’t understand.
My question is, without the income from the TV show, would they be able to support the family?
GatsbyGal, I don’t know where you heard them say that they don’t get medical attention during pregnancies. They’ve shown Michelle visiting her obstetrician and receiving ultrasounds more than once on the show.
I don’t agree with some of the Duggar’s beliefs (forbidding dancing and promoting creationism) but don’t we all have the right to live our lives the way we choose? How boring the world would be if we were all the same!
Ouch! I sympathize with Michelle. I had gallstones about 4 years ago, and I must’ve suffered about 12 attacks before I finally convinced my mom to take me to the hospital. My family was skeptical about the overwhelming pain I was in. They thought it was “just gas”.
Imagine their surprise though when the doctor in the emergency room told me that I couldn’t leave. I had several small stones that were creating complications. I went through surgery to have the stones removed, but not my gallbladder.
Anyway, I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to suffer a gallstone attack while pregnant. I’m glad that she and the baby are doing fine.
GatsbyGal, I remember reading that she refuses tests that doctors recommend mothers in their 40s get, but not all medical attention entirely. I think the tests are for things like Down Syndrome – which due to her beliefs wouldn’t cause her to decide not to go through with the pregnancy no matter what it said.
I just want to slap the crap out of this hag. She annoys me to no end.
Would she have had to be airlifted (utilizing tax dollars and fossil fuel) if she wasn’t planning on delivering another carbon footprint this spring?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for families. But selfish, wasteful people burning through our natural resources by breeding in the name of God really irks me.
@atticus and Lantana-ITA about pregnancy. I had nausea and vomiting severe enough for medication with both my kids and developed pre-eclampsia in the last months with both. My last one I was hospitalized 2 weeks before they induced me at 35 weeks. I never want to be pregnant again. I take two healthy kids from 2 rotten pregnacies as a sign to quit while I am ahead. She must have the easiest pregnacies on the planet. I wonder if she breastfeeds if she does then she’s been breastfeeding nonstop for 19 years. That is hard to wrap your head around.
Gallstones – labor pains…big difference in area where the pain happens. Neither is a skip through the flowers but y’think she’d know after all the practice she’s had. But then again, you wouldn’t want it just falling on out like that one part of The Meaning of Life.
I admire them. They have raised what seem to be very thoughtful, kind, generous and helpful children. These kids will grow to be PRODUCTIVE members of society and I can’t see how that is a bad thing. We need more decent, hard working and honest people in this world to counteract all of the self centered children many in society seem to be raising now.
They’re child hoarders. Full stop. The older kids raise the younger kids, that’s how they’re so relaxed.
They creep me out. I just don’t see why anyone would feel the need to have so many kids. My grandma had 16 surviving siblings, but that was back in the 30s, when contraception wasn’t used-especially in the Irish family she came from. My grandma’s told me many times that she thinks it was cruel of her dad and step-dad to basically keep her mum in a constant state of pregnancy, and I agree. None of her siblings had massive families, though, I think the biggest was four kids, so maybe that’s what will happen here.
The whole “be fruitful and multiply” mandate is a little antiquated given that the human race is 6 billion strong, and I am not for having this many children because I believe that it’s evolutionarily unnecessary. I do, however, appreciate that they are self-sufficient and don’t have to rely on the govt for sustenance. So, she can have as many kids as she wants as long as no one else has to foot the bill.
@H If I remember right, you aren’t supposed to breastfeed when you’re pregnant. And since she’s pregnant about every 18 months-I would gather that she’s not.
@L:37 – there’s nothing wrong with breastfeeding while pregnant so no idea where you got that info from. MD does breastfeed her babies, she’s often said that she realises she’s pregnant when the baby she’s nursing starts to get fussy as the milk changes taste due to the hormones.
breastfeeding while pregnant is totally fine…
It’s their life to live as they want, and as long as they support themselves and don’t ask for handouts, OK.
But if it were me, I would not make the same choices they have. With that many kids, there is no way each gets individual attention and bonding with the parents. As others have said, a lot of the responsibility falls on the older children – learning responsibility is good, but the kids should also get to be kids.
It seems to me like they’re doing a disservice to their kids in terms of education – I don’t have any problem with homeschooling, but I don’t see how they could give enough attention and proper educational focus to each kid, every day, with so many different grade levels.
I’ve been pregnant 4 times. 3 successfully. Every OB/GYN and pregnancy book I’ve read says not to breastfeed while pregnant. Your uterus contracts while nursing. Which is dangerous for the unborn baby
My mother birthed 10 children and would have had more (so she says) if it weren’t for complications after my little brother was born. I was visiting her when the Duggar story came on and even she says Michelle is crazy.
I believe this is one of the so much significant information for me. And i’m glad reading your article. However wanna statement on some general things, The web site taste is great, the articles is in point of fact great : D. Just right process, cheers