More than a week ago, Jill Duggar-Dillard finally gave birth to her first child, a son named Israel David Dillard. Jill was two weeks past her due date, and when Israel finally came out, he was HUGE. Which was enough to make me feel really sorry for Jill, because two weeks overdue must have been really uncomfortable, plus I thought squeezing out a gigantic baby probably hurt like hell. As it turns out, Jill had a C-section. It wasn’t entirely her choice – Jill wanted to have an all-natural, drug-free, home birth. But Israel had other ideas. And the whole ordeal involved Jill being induced after a 70 HOUR LABOR.
Jill Duggar and her husband Derick Dillard had planned to have their first child at home, but after a series of frightening circumstances the first-time mom had an emergency C-section for her baby Israel David Dillard. RadarOnline.com reported last week on the growing speculation that Duggar had gone under the knife, and the 19 Kids & Counting star confirmed the dramatic delivery details in an article out Tuesday.
She spent 20 hours in labor but tested positive for strep B, a bacteria that is common during birth but required her to take antibiotic via an IV, according to People magazine. She also saw a slight trace of meconium (fetal waste, which can be a sign of distress) and decided to forgo her home birth plan and head to the hospital.
“I was praying to God to give me strength,” the first Duggar daughter to give birth said. “I was really scared and nervous, but I was praying.”
The 23-year-old tried everything she could to avoid drugs once at the hospital. Duggar explained that she initially declined the drug Pitocin, which helps induce labor, and pain medication, but the baby turned into a transverse breech position. Finally after 70 hours of labor, when the fetus was showing irregular heart rates and had not yet descended, the doctors expressed concern for both her health and that of her son. So the Duggar and Dillard agreeded hat it was time for a cesarean section. Jill’s own mother, Michelle Duggar, has had 4 C-sections and 13 regular births in a row.
They then safely welcomed their son, Israel David Dillard, at 11:49 pm and he weighed a healthy 9-lb., 10-oz. Despite the change in plans, Duggar says that she wouldn’t change a thing.
“I love our birth story because it bonded us so well,” she told the magazine. “I still haven’t changed a single diaper. Derick has been changing them all.”
Well, I’m glad she finally agreed to a C-section. It didn’t sound like she had much choice in the matter – I mean, what else could the doctors say to her? This is the way it had to happen. But I do feel sorry for her because it sounds like her birth plan went to hell almost immediately and she was in pain for a really long time. You’d think that after an experience like that, Jill and Derick would want to wait to get pregnant again, but ten bucks says she’s knocked up again in the next eight months.
Photos courtesy of Jill & Derick’s Instagrams, cover courtesy of People.
Idiots.
I’m really feeling I’m up to my eyeballs on these guys. Ever since their baby’s been born it feels non stop with them. They’re breeders, this is what they do. So every time a baby comes out we have to be saturated with them?
I’m yelling uncle on this one.
Ugh, me, too, aims. I’m just so sick of them.
Right, a Duggar having a baby hasn’t been news for at least five years.
yeah I’m really over this misogynistic cult
+1
Kuddos to the hubby for changing diapers – I thought Duggar spawn believed that only women should do the work of raising the children while the men are free to wander and sperminate freely.
I can’t keep them all straight. Does this guy have a job?
Also…. If she needed pitocin, her contractions were probably not full scale. I also had a looooong labor followed by pitocin followed by a caesarean and a 10 pound baby, and my contractions were exhausting – but not the screaming banjee kind. Her story is nothing special. HATE the constant reaching for drama. Be happy you had a healthy baby and GO AWAY.
Yeah, he has a job. He’s an accountant at Walmart. I hate that I know that.
Poor thing.
Eh. 15 kids from now they’ll be falling out when she sneezes.
Unless you meant the baby, then I agree.
I’ve never been in labor but hot damn 70 hours? Glad everyone is ok. Baby is giant and cute.
Do they have jobs? I mean, is their money from the show that generous?
Derrick works at Walmart as a tax accountant and I think Jill is a midwife student.
I was in labor with kid#1 for 40+ hours…I feel for her, 70 hours ouch!!…..Someday she will be glad she had a CS with a 9lb19oz baby….really glad…her ladybits will thank her…unless of course she ends up using it as a clown car like her mom…then eventually the babies will just start strolling out…no induction needed lol.
Lololol! Clown car! Strolling out! Lol. Thanks for that laugh.
Strolling out? Hell no, the next ones will cartwheel their way out, twirling batons as they come.
I had a 9 lb baby vaginally. The vagina is like a flattened balloon, the kind that you blow up and put on a stretchy band and punch it over and over? Those pleated folds? That’s what a vagina is like. It accommodates a baby. And it’s not destroyed afterwards, either. In fact, I have never been able to tell a single but of difference. Not in the weeks after or the years after.
It depends on the vagina. I’ve heard of women having trouble with sex long after childbirth. You can tear all the way into your butthole and require reconstructive surgery. Leftover scar tissue can cause issues.
What Isa said… also, I read that whether or not it comes back to its pre-birth state very much depends on the woman’s age. Body just doesn’t regenerate as well after a certain age.
Btw, once you inflate a baloon it doesn;t go back to its previous form either…
Maybe the baby knew his parents are stone cold nuts and didn’t want to come out before he absolutely had to.
Yeah, I was just going to say that. The baby reminds me of my own birth. I was 2 weeks late, my mom was in labor for days until she was finally forced to get a c-section. My mom says I just didn’t want to be born, which can be said for this baby too. Because who the hell would want to be part of that crazy cult family?
This.
Why wait that long? That borders on martydom.
Better for ratings…………plus now the baby machine is damaged. No woman has 19 C-sections.
Exactly. VBAC is more common but you still need to meet certain criteria and I’d be willing to bet she doesn’t meet it if she gets pregnant right away again. No way this girl is having as many babies as her mom did.
@Lucinda – My daughter had a c-section with her daughter (2nd child) and had her 3rd and 4th child via the vagina. I think VBAC’s are more common because we are starting to swing away from automatically having c-sections. There for a while it seemed c-sections were the norm.
Most doctors recommend waiting 18 months before getting pregnant again. VBACs are becoming more common but they often still require a fight. My doctor started talking csection at my very first appointment. I did get my VBAC though. 🙂
As long as it’s not a question of putting the baby in danger, I would still prefer a long labor to a C Section. 6 weeks of extremely restricted movement, including not carrying more than 20 pounds? A much longer recovery, including an incision and internal and external stitches? No thanks.
Yes! And throw in lack of paternity leave and having older kids to take care of it can be a nightmare. You’re not supposed to drive until you’re cleared.
I really, really hope she listens to her doctor. Getting pregnant right away after a c-section is dangerous. Especially if she does it repeatedly. Isn’t that what caused issues with Michelle’s last child?
Yeah it is really dangerous. We were told at least 18 months between pregnancies when I had my first. And every c-section increased the risk of placenta accreta, which is mega dangerous.
I believe michelle gave birth early due to preeclampsia.
yeah Michelle did have PE – twice. The last one for sure was PE. I had my baby early due to PE around the same time she did. PE is NO JOKE, but Michelle just gets pregnant again and that time she lost the baby. Gawd, these people. SO CLUELESS. Makes me so punchy.
Thank God for modern medicine.
Yeah curious why she would get a section if it was gods will for her to not be able to give birth? Religious people are ridiculous…it’s all god this and god that everything good attributed to god but nothing bad. Why didn’t she just rely in god to magically save her? Religion makes no sense at all!
So she selfishly put herself and her unborn child in jeopardy. I’m surprised the doctor let her go 70 hours especially when the baby had turned to a breech position.
Amen. I get all these people who are into the home birth no drugs whateverness, but COME ON. If it’s a choice between following your blessed birth plan or maybe killing your baby, cut that belly open and get it out of there. This whole article makes me want to throw my computer out the window.
Me too. The fact that the doctor let it go 70 hours is VERY unusual which makes me think there might be a bit of exaggeration here.
Well, technically it would be hard to force her to do anything she didn’t want to do, and I’m sure they played the religion card. I bet it was 70 hours of the nurses begging her to do it.
I agree but I still think they are playing it up. 70 hours is nearly 3 full days. Was that 70 hours of hard labor? Or was it 70 hours from the first small contraction to birth? How long was she dilated? Had her water broken yet? Because they really don’t want to let labor continue more than 24 hours after the water breaks. I can’t imagine a hospital not making her sign forms freeing them of liability for refusing intervention sooner. They will absolutely do that if you refuse their medical advice. That’s why I find the 70 hour number difficult to believe.
That’s pretty harsh. We don’t know what went on in that hospital room, or how intense her labor was (if she was offered pitocin, that actually suggests that she wasn’t in active, transitional labor). And she ultimately made the decision to go for the C Section, to make sure her baby was born safely.
She was probably waiting for god to intervene because you know he totally exists and totally saves people
It’s not harsh. Waiting until the baby was in distress when the signs were there that she was not going to be able to deliver vaginally to me is selfish.
Maybe those first 70 hrs were at home, with no doctor input.
If her OB/GYN is like most, this is probably going to mean a lot of c-sections in her future. Mine WILL NOT do a VBAC on anyone for liability reasons.
And like PP said, it probably means 4 babies tops.
70 hours! Yikes!
What’s to stop them from just carrying on, and having loads of babies, either by VBAC or by c-section, just with each subsequent pregnancy getting more and more dangerous to her and the babies? That’s what her mother did after all.
Wow, that sucks. VBACs are a viable option for many women who meet the criteria, and there are so many reasons to avoid having a C Section if possible. Personally, I’d see a different OB-Gyn.
If that’s the case she will probably switch to a different doctor. I know I was prepared to. Csections are not without risk either. My son developed TTN from the csection.
I don’t know many people that had great experiences with C Sections. Even when everything goes well it’s not a particularly pleasant recovery. And C Sections come with a lot of risks themselves. There’s a reason why many hospitals are working to lower their C Section rates.
And can I just say how much it ticks me off that someone’s medical care is dictated by the doctor’s insurance, not what’s best for the patients?
what’s a VBAC?
Having a vaginal delivery after having had a c-section. My daughter had to have a c-section with her second child (my granddaughter’s feet were by her ears and her butt was down – literally folded in half) but with her third and fourth child had vaginal deliveries.
Vaginal birth after cesarean. In some cases, women are able to birth subsequent babies vaginally rather than requiring a repeat c-section.
i could almost write every single response from these people , it goes like this
Babies, us, Baby,Dream,God,Marriage,babies,Many,love,praying, God,chastely,baby,J (this is just a J cause it could be really any of their dumb J Names), mom, dad, baby,Jesus, abortions are bad, Jesus, baby, pregnant, married
Side hug to you QQ
F that, she gets a full frontal hug for that gem.
Doofus, we aren’t Married, so please be like GNAT and Keep It Christian, all my full frontals and my backdoors are for Jesus
lmao
oh doofus, you’re kinda fast….wink
I had a poster in high school that said “Fast Women Play Lacrosse”…as I was a lax player, I LOVED that poster!
🙂
QQ, I don’t know you, but I love you. You are a constant source of amusement.
bring it on here for a side hug too!
You forgot blessing and followship
could this whole family just go away?
I cannot even imagine a 70 hour labor. Holy crap. I’ve had 4 kids and my longest labor was 5 hours.
Wow! They really put the baby and her at risk. This week there was a tragedy here where I live .. Someone I know’s wife went into labour, there were complications she had to get an emergency caesarian and she never woke up 🙁 The baby was flown out to a hospital 8 hours away and she ended up passing also due to lack of oxygen. So sad, the mother was only 29 and leaves behind a 3 year old, a 12 year old and her husband. Labour is no joke, women still die from it even in this day and age.
I had a 10 1/2 lb baby naturally. Sometimes I wish I had a c section. I had to have reconstructive surgery a week later :/. And all that, after almost three days of labor. I digress, I’m tired of this family.
I think it all depends on how people define or interpret “labor.” I don’t understand how she could have “been in labor for 70 hours” but then have been induced. I thought being induced is when you get synthetic oxytocin/pitocin to try to begin labor, right? They can’ t mean 70 hours of active labor. I guess my labor began with the “bloody show” (sorry if TMI), but it wasn’t until 20 hours later that I had a baby in my arms, but I wouldn’t count all 20 hours as labor, just the last unbearable 10 hours or so or close contractions… 70 hours of that part (active labor) seems impossible to survive (I bow down before all women who have suffered even a few minutes of contractions). Surviving the whole process at all is miraculous anyway.
I thought the same thing. She had Braxton hicks contractions for days. The few days before I had my baby I had several bouts of contractions.
I had the same definition of an induction as you. I needed pitocin for my VBAC baby after my labor stalled at 8 cm but I never considered it an induction. Shrug.
How can they call it “stalling” at 8cm!?!? That’s 80% of the way there! For me, most of the pain was getting to 8/9cm, then once I was “allowed” to push, it was way better. If by better, one means, absolutely the worst pain I have ever had in my life 😉
I also wouldn’t say you were induced, your laboured started, you powered through, then they gave you some pitocin. 😀
Since it was a VBAC I was closely monitored. I my contractions slowed down or stopped, can’t remember for sure, for four hours with no progress. They gave me a bit of pit and my baby was born an hour and a half later. It was kind of a blessing though, since it gave me enough time for an epidural. Before that they didn’t think I would have time to get one.
Is two weeks after the projected due date the norm. Do any of you know. Because from what I remember in health class, it seems that these two were engaging in coitus before marriage.
Also, that Rock Hudson story is gaining serious traction. Did anyone read it over at People.com. Cute story but also still tragic.
If the baby was conceived before their wedding he would have came earlier, if I’m not mistaken.
Yep. You are right. *puts on dunce hat* I am a**backwards today.
All that comes to mind with this family is the word cult. Marriage followed by baby after baby after baby. Don’t they teach their daughters to strive for something first and worry about the marriage and kids later on?
With my two deliveries I was focused on getting them out safely and fairly quickly. I read horror stories of babies getting cords wrapped around their necks and meconium in their lungs. .. on and on.
My labour for my first son was 72 hours long. I ended up having a vaginal birth, but with forceps and 27 stitches up my *ss, and it should have been a section. I used a different obstetrician for my second son. I didn’t even want more children after that first experience, but got pregnant using three forms of birth control, so my second kid REALLY wanted to be born. lol I was worried my whole second pregnancy. I was ten days overdue with both of them, the second had to be induced or I don’t think he ever would have come out, haha. They were 8 and 9 pounds, consecutively. Second son was 21 hours of labour, which was a picnic compared to the first! 😉
I sincerely hope Jill gets to have a big break before having another child.
Aside from all of the negativity on here- What a beautiful baby. He is gorgeous. That beautiful blonde hair! Just glad he is healthy and here. I don’t watch the show so I don’t have an opinion one way or the other, but a child is always a blessing.
I’m glad someone said something regarding the negativity. Why click on the story if you hate them so much? Same comments, different day. Yawn.
One of my friends was a big advocate for home birth and became a doula…until she really studied it. Now she is a very much against home birthing, because she feels that a lot of important information is regularly kept from mothers looking into this option. She is especially passionate about the different types of certifications that midwives (etc.) can receive. Some of these certifications are essentially meaningless and some actually have standards behind them.
http://www.douladani.com/
70 hours before a section? Lie. Creative numbering of those “labor” hours.
That’s my thought as well.
None of that is heroic. She prioritized her birth experience over a live birth. 70 hours is way too long if it was active labor. Those numbers might be fudged a bit and include inactive labor. But if not do what’s best for the baby not you.
Haven’t read the comments so don’t know if this has been said but…… She likes to spout “I prayed to God…I left it up to God”……..um.. NO! It was medical science that saved you and your baby’s butt. I believe in God but I also believe he gave us all brains! I HOPE it was a female doc that operated on her…..because we all know that according to the Duggard Dillweeds….wimmins is only good for birthin’ and raisin’ children!
Grrrrrr!
I’m confused. They had IV hookups and lab capabilities at their home? “She spent 20 hours in labor but tested positive for strep B, a bacteria that is common during birth but required her to take antibiotic via an IV… She also saw a slight trace of meconium (fetal waste, which can be a sign of distress) and decided to forgo her home birth plan and head to the hospital.”. So all of that happened at home, before heading to the actual hospital. Who did the testing?
I wondered about that, too. Maybe with all that emphasis on procreation, they have fully equipped birthing rooms at home.
I was in labor for 76 hours. I counted it from regular, painful contractions 8 minutes apart or less. I started having them Friday morning, got checked for progress that afternoon, went to the hospital Saturday night. I was very slowly dilating but definitely in labor. They broke my water Sunday midday. My body was exhausted by Sunday evening and my contractions slowed down in intensity so I got pitocin and an epidural Sunday night. I had my son at 6:08 am Monday morning. I pushed for 2 hours and had third degree tears. Looking back, my son had his arm raised across his face and elbow out which slowed everything down and made it really painful. He came out with that hand up by his head, which also made it harder for him to come out.
I used nurse midwives in a hospital and while I had hoped for a natural birth, it was fine. The midwives and medical staff let me continue to progress without intervention because my son’s heart rate was normal and i was stable.
It was a marathon birth and the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I’m pregnant again (My son will be 2 when this one is born) and I’m just clinging to hope that next time will be shorter!!! 🙂
I do think that when labor is that long, it is not as painful each contraction as a shorter labor. Mine felt like really really bad period cramps for the first day, getting progressively worse of course. I couldn’t eat without throwing up and I couldn’t sleep either, so it was a fun weekend.
To relate back to the story, I feel for Jill. But when you have group b strep or meconium, that baby needs to come out! That would be incredible disappointing to go through that long of a labor and STILL have a c-section.
This shit is why birth is scary. Jill labored at home, until she was probably ready to push. Probably slept and walked around and tried to get things moving. I’m sure she counted all those hours in her labor. She looks like she pushed for awhile (so does the babies head) and finally in the scary last few moments she had to be probably strongly pushed into a c/s. I know midwife types, they feel like failures if they don’t their trophy vag birth.
I had a 16 hr labor with 3 hrs of pushing and baby never came out. It was hell. Of course I wanted a vaginal birth but I’m grateful we are both safe and sound! A c section isn’t an easy way out, it’s painful, scary, and sucks. Props to all moms (birth hurts no matter what!) but major props to the bad ass chicks who had to have the worst of both worlds: long labors AND abdominal surgery!!
I would use that for the rest of that kid’s life;
“I WAS IN LABOR WITH YOU FOR 70 HOURS- PICK UP YOUR TOYS!”
“I WAS IN LABOR WITH YOU FOR 70 HOURS- GO BRUSH YOUR TEETH!”
“I WAS IN LABOR WITH YOU FOR 70 HOURS- GET UP FOR SCHOOL!”