The Duggar family became famous thanks to the TLC series that documented their lives and their growing brood of youngsters. 19 Kids and Counting ended after a scandal involving Josh Duggar, but Jessa and Jill got their own show in 2016. Both young women had new babies when Jill & Jessa: Counting On debuted, and all signs pointed toward more babies in the years to come. As it turns out, however, Jessa Duggar Seewald told her husband that she was done after one pregnancy. Jessa shared this story about her first pregnancy in a recent interview:
I was teasing him when I was in labor - I don't really think I was teasing, actually, I told him while I was in labor: 'Babe, we are not having ANY more kids after this. We are ADOPTING all the rest.'
The idea of one of the Duggar kids ruling out having more than one baby sounds a bit far-fetched, considering their religious beliefs about reproduction and contraception, but Jessa Duggar Seewald went through nearly 48 hours of labor at home as part of her natural birth plan. After her son was finally delivered, she had to be rushed to the emergency room because she just wouldn't stop bleeding. How many of us could really blame her for wanting to avoid the trauma and possible danger of a second pregnancy? It's not like the Duggar line is in danger of coming to an end. There are still kind of a lot of them.
Besides, adopting would be a safe way to expand the Seewald branch of the family tree if Jessa maintained that she didn't want to endure another pregnancy. Her parents even considered adoption at one point, and an adoption could take Counting On in an entirely new direction. Counting On could continue counting on whether or not Jessa decided to have more babies.
There's no saying at this point whether or not adoption is off the table, but Jessa has come around to the idea of more pregnancies. The first ordeal was evidently worth the pain to her because it resulted in her son Spurgeon. In fact, Jessa went on to announce in her chat with People that she and Ben Seewald are expecting their second child this February, so she didn't stick to her guns long. Hopefully Baby #2 will come a lot easier and with a lot less pain for the young mom. Maybe less than two days of labor and misery this time.
Of course, there's no certainty about how much of a future Counting On has on TLC. The show has done well in the ratings so far, but advertisers haven't been eager to be associated with the Duggar family. The network caught some flak for possibly ignoring reports of troubles within the Duggar family, and the wildly-successful 19 Kids and Counting was pulled from the schedule as the Josh Duggar scandal developed. Jessa and Jill remained popular enough with fans that TLC ordered their spinoff. Not enough time may have passed for everybody to move past the controversy.
Check out our fall TV premiere schedule for a look at what you can definitely watch on the small screen in the near future.
