Michelle Duggar, an Arkansas woman with 17 children, is pregnant with #18. story here
While I love the idea of a large family and hope to have more children myself, I can not imagine having 18. You have to start really early in your childbearing career to have that many without fertility aids. I can not imagine how tired this woman must be, to have a 9-month old infant and be 6 weeks pregnant, at the age of 41. 16 pregnancies (they have two sets of twins) is a LOT. I am by no means tapped out, but my second pregnancy has been slightly physically difficult whereas the first was a cakewalk.
The Duggars attribute their fecundity to God's will. I disagree. The way that mothers were made by God include the physical need for exclusive breastfeeding for quite some time. (Hence the extra fat now accumulating on my bottom.) It is very, very unlikely that any mother who is nursing freely and exclusively as God intended will experience a return to fertility at 7 months postpartum. We're just not designed for it. How is overriding God's will, God's will?
I do hope that their family brings the Duggars joy.
Posted by
wakeful dreamer