Jessa Duggar did not have the # 3 baby in the hospital. Why do duggars have births at home?

Baby Ivy arrived a week and a half early. The expected date for Jessa 's delivery was June 5th and she suspected that she could exceed her due date because that' s what happened with her previous two pregnancies. However, Ivy had other ideas.

"We were preparing for the church when my water broke and we said," Well, I guess we changed plans! "Jessa wrote.

"We are so surprised that she arrived two weeks earlier than her brothers," she added. "We really did not expect that!"

Jessa gave birth at home

Counting on Fans know that women in Duggar often prefer to try to give birth at home.

For her third year, Jessa decided to stick to the family tradition. Ivy was delivered to the Seewald family home after only three and a half hours of work.

The short work was a big change from Jessa's first baby. In 2015, she gave birth for nearly two days with Spurgeon. Although she was finally able to deliver him home, she was bleeding profusely after birth and had to be rushed to the hospital, where she received a blood transfusion.

Despite the complications she experienced with Spurgeon, Jessa opted for another birth at home with Henry. Fortunately, it went well and his work was much shorter.

Why do Duggars prefer deliveries at home?

Jessa is part of a national birth trend at home. The number of women who choose to have their children outside of the hospital has increased in recent years. However, home births are still quite rare.

From 2004 to 2014, the share of hospital births increased from 1% to 1.5% of all births in the United States, according to a study by University of Maryland researchers at College Park . In 2014, there were 60,000 out-of-hospital births in the United States, including 38,000 at home. (Most of the others took place in a birth center.)

Women have many reasons to choose to avoid hospitals when they have a baby. In the case of Michelle, Jessa's mother, she said she appreciated the fact that giving birth to the sixth child's home, Jinger, allowed him to better control the entire process.

"As the birth at home was different! I could walk, lean against the wall or the counter and move with the contractions rather than lying on my back in bed during work, "she writes in her book The Duggars: 20 and it counts!

Jessa apparently hoped for an experience similar to that of her mother. She also wanted a natural birth without painkillers, she told People after Spurgeon's birth. However, she admitted that she had doubts about this decision in the middle of her work.

"I said, that's it! I'm done! I'm going to the hospital and I'm going to have an epidural, "she told the magazine. "They asked me if I really wanted to do that and I said," No, I would not do it, but I would do it. "I wanted to try in a natural way if possible."

Many Duggars give birth at the hospital

Jessa's frightening experience during Spurgeon's delivery highlights some of the risks that birth can bring to the home. And she is not the only Duggar to cope with a difficult birth. In fact, she is somewhat unusual in that her deliveries at home have been successful.

Jessa's big sister, Jill, worked at home for 20 hours with her son Israel before going to the hospital, where she had an extra 50-hour work before finally undergoing a cesarean section. She tried home delivery again for baby # 2, but he also arrived by caesarean section. Their sister Joy-Anna also wanted to have her baby at home, but she had to be taken to the hospital for a caesarean section because her baby was in a siege position.

Jinger – perhaps after seeing the experience of her sisters – chose to go directly to the Laredo Hospital when she gave birth with Felicity last year. Even mother Michelle, who praised her home birth experience, gave birth to all her children except two to the hospital.

Jessa is only the first of several Duggar women who will give birth this year. His sisters-in-law Anna, Kendra and Lauren are waiting, as well as his sister Joy-Anna. Whether they choose to have their babies at home or at the hospital, remains to be seen, but whatever their decision, the fans hope that they will all have safe deliveries and freebies. healthy babies!