Couple Welcomes 17th Child, Wants More

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^ The Quebec government actually does that in the form of incentives. Not sure what the current programs are but there have been cash bonuses to have babies and top-up of federal income replacement during maternity leave. They also have had $5/day daycare subsidized by the province.

The "Allowance for Newborn Children" gave $500 per family for a first-born child and up to $8,000 for a third child. That program was scrapped in 1997.

And Quebec is the only province to have its own parental-leave program having opted of the federal program. It pays up to 75 per cent of insurable earnings.

And it's now $7/day subsidized daycare.

Socialism. :love::drool:
 
The "Allowance for Newborn Children" gave $500 per family for a first-born child and up to $8,000 for a third child. That program was scrapped in 1997.

And Quebec is the only province to have its own parental-leave program having opted of the federal program. It pays up to 75 per cent of insurable earnings.

And it's now $7/day subsidized daycare.

Socialism. :love::drool:

Looks like I got the hell out of Dodge too soon. :doh:
 
Saw last night's episode and it was shocking in how rude the children were. I blame the parents.

They went to DC and for dinner to an Ethiopian restaurant. There were also some Ethiopian dancers performing during the meal. The children (and this includes the oldest one and his WIFE) spent the entire time rolling their eyes at the performance, holding their noses at the food (not kidding), and whining about how gross it was. Neither parent tried to correct the children at any point.

Shocking IMO.
 
I got hooked on it when they always had it on at the gym during my workout. :crack:
 
i would like to see some movements in state congress equal to those that would like to prevent gays from adopting to prevent people from having no more than 4 children, because in my religious personal view, children need no more than 3 siblings because they will get confused. every child has one mother than one father -- NOT several older sisters -- and with so many older siblings acting as de facto parents, a child could, again, get confused.

please, think of the children.

This is why you think women should stay home and home school, right? Going to daycare or school is just too damn confusing.
 
Yikes. Addiction is bad. :down:

I watch almost no TV but what I do watch is usually really bad. Mostly because it's an effective way to wind down after a long day (my brain is okay for the first 12 hours of work, it starts to fry after that though).
 
And Quebec is the only province to have its own parental-leave program having opted of the federal program. It pays up to 75 per cent of insurable earnings.

It's working. 2 years into the program and fertility rates are back to 1976 levels.
 
The Bates family are more frightening, in terms of extreme fundamentalist indoctrination. They show up occasionally on the Duggar's programme, with their cute colour-coded family uniforms and so on.
 
Very limited TV and internet usage, all dating must go through the father first, all dates must be chaperoned by a parent, girls can't have short hair or wear long pants, girls must stay at home until they get married, girls can't go to college, no physical interaction or kissing until marriage.
...meanwhile they invite TV cameras into their home and turn their private lives into gawk-and-point entertainment for the masses. The worst of the Good Old Days and the worst of the present rolled into one. If they weren't intentionally peddling themselves as spectacle/role model (whichever your prefer--they'll take the attention/money either way!), I'd be considerably more sympathetic, or at least indifferent.
 
Saw last night's episode and it was shocking in how rude the children were. I blame the parents.

They went to DC and for dinner to an Ethiopian restaurant. There were also some Ethiopian dancers performing during the meal. The children (and this includes the oldest one and his WIFE) spent the entire time rolling their eyes at the performance, holding their noses at the food (not kidding), and whining about how gross it was. Neither parent tried to correct the children at any point.


I saw that episode too. If they want people to understand them and be "tolerant" (I hate that expression but I can't come up with another one fast enough) then they should try to teach their kids to do the same. I think that's probably why they took them to the restaurant, to "broaden their horizons" and I don't think those parents would want their kids to be rude.. So I don't know-not an excuse, but maybe it's just lack of exposure to other cultures. I've seen adults act in similar ways, and not adults who grew up like that.

I read this article on msnbc, thought it was interesting

Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 8:26 PM PT


By Diane Mapes, contributing writer

When Arkansas mom and reality TV star Michelle Duggar announced on the Today show Sept. 1 that she was pregnant with her 19th child, millions of Americans expressed joy and amazement.

But others – undoubtedly the queasiest of the bunch – were a bit uneasy. How could one woman – or rather, one uterus – bear so many children? Isn’t that, well, stretching things a bit?

Not necessarily, experts say.

“The uterus is a remarkably flexible organ,” says Dr. Florence P. Haseltine, ob/gyn and founder of the Society for Women’s Health Research in Alexandria, Va. “It can grow rather rapidly and it can recede rather rapidly. It’s able to reconstruct itself and reconfigure itself quickly.”

Haseltine says she understands how people would be amazed that one uterus could carry and deliver so many children – especially in a day and age when the average number of births per female is 2.12 – but it’s a misconception to think that giving birth to 18 or 19 children is overtaxing the organ’s ability.

“The sense is ‘My goodness, I get physically tired just thinking about it, so therefore the uterus would be tired,’ but that’s not necessarily true,” she says. “I don’t believe a uterus gets tired. If it had damage as a result of a specific pregnancy, it might cause trouble. But it doesn’t make any physiological sense why one should worry about the uterus.”

Thanks to the wonders of reality TV – the family has their own show entitled “18 Kids & Counting!” on TLC – keeping track of Michelle Duggars’ uterus has become sort of a national pastime. According to the family Web site, the couple married in 1984 and had their first child four years later. Since then, Michelle Duggar has given birth to an additional 17 children, including two sets of twins. Three of the births have been via Caesarean section; the others have been vaginal. She and her husband, Jim Bob, are currently expecting their 19th child (as well as their first grandchild).

While experts say good health plays a major role in any woman’s ability to conceive, carry and deliver children, particularly multiple children, good genes are crucial, too.

“Everyone is different in their health, and with some women it takes more of a toll,” says Dr. Karen V. Wells, an ob/gyn at the Center for Women’s Health at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Wash. “And women have different muscle tone in their uterus. Some people get saggier and baggier earlier on and some people have good tone to their tissue. It has to do with our individual makeup, our collagen, our elastic fibers, our genetics. I know someone who after just two children had to have her bladder resupported. Other people seem to do fine. Obviously Mrs. Duggar is a very healthy woman and her body is handling it well.”

Not that there aren’t concerns and complications when it comes to multiple pregnancies or “grand multiples,” as they’re known. After delivering five or six children, women are more prone to post-partum bleeding or hemorrhaging. The risk for toxemia and preeclampsia also increases. Anemia can also be a concern.

“There’s a continuous leeching of calcium and iron, the supplemental building blocks that babies need,” says Dr. Peter Wall of Eastside Maternal Fetal Medicine in Kirkland, Wash. “After having many children, chronic anemia or osteopenia – weak bones – could be a chronic risk. Also carrying children does increase the risk of incontinence, but even women who haven’t had children have incontinence.”

And having lots of kids has health benefits, too, Wall is quick to point out.

“We know that having many kids protects from breast cancer and ovarian cancer,” he says.

Labor, also, becomes shorter the more deliveries a woman has, although it doesn’t necessarily become easier.

“The duration of labor is shortened, but that doesn’t automatically translate into easier,” he says. “You’ve been down that road before. The ability to cope with labor is probably better when you’re naïve and 18.”

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average number of births per female has gone up and down over the years, from 3.33 in 1917 to 2.17 in 1937 to 3.68 in 1957 to 1.77 in 1975. National averages aside, though, there have always been “supermoms,” from Queen Victoria and Rose Kennedy who both had nine children to Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev, a Russian peasant who made the Guinness Book of World Records by giving birth to a total of 69 children, including 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets.

Today, the average woman has about 2.12 children, although if desired, any woman could try for supermom status. The trick is to avoid contraception, be exceptionally fertile and be up for the challenge, says Wells.

“Having that many children isn’t an oddity,” she says. “I look back at my own family history and my great-grandmother had 10 children and five survived. The fact is most people don’t want that many children today.”

Those who do want lots of babies are encouraged to space their pregnancies out by at least 18 months, says Wall. And to keep in mind that some women are simply more adept at baby-making than others

“This woman has some remarkable capabilities,” he says. “I think this is her special talent.”
 
Every time I hear another Duggar story, I can't help but think about the amount of natural resources a family like that uses. If everyone lived like the Duggars, we'd probably need a hundred Earths just to sustain everyone. This one would probably be a barren rock in just a few generations.
 
i can't feasibly see how the parents can parent and encourage 18 kids to grow and flourish. not that they don't love their kids, but even if you wanted to spend even 24 hours with one of them, it would take almost a month to dedicate 1 day to each child! they can't reasonably give each child the attention and time it deserves.
 
Good point loudnoises.

I think its selfish of them to keep having kids.
 
I saw the episode the other night when they went to Kleinfeld's for a wedding vow renewal dress (sweet deal w/ all the gorgeous and expensive dresses there) and Jim Bob suggested a dress w/ puffy sleeves.. he's so hopelessly out of things. They sewed a top into the strapless dress she chose and she tried it on with a shirt underneath because of their emphasis on modesty.


Maybe Mrs. Duggar could get pregnant again with her 20th while she's pregnant with this one . Hopefully both of these babies will be healthy.

NEW YORK (CBS News) ―


How could a woman be pregnant with two fetuses, but not with twins?

Todd and Julia Grovenburg, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, are expecting two babies, but one might be weeks older than the other.

Some doctors believe it's a rare case of superfetation, a condition common in animals, but rarely seen in humans. In this case, Julia, who was already pregnant, got pregnant again.

The couple joined "Early Show" anchor Harry Smith on Monday to discuss the rare double-surprise.

The Grovenburgs have been trying to conceive for a couple of years and this May Julia received the great news that she was pregnant.

"We went in for our first appointment and they scheduled for us a sonogram two weeks after, so June 4 was the first," Julia said.

The happy couple saw the second fetus at the first sonogram. Developmentally, the babies are two weeks and four days apart.

Although the Grovenburg's doctor was surprised, he wanted to make sure the second baby was developing right along with the first.

"He came in and his initial reaction was to 'Let's wait and see' and make sure the littler baby catches up to the bigger baby, because it was something so new for him also," she said.

Julia's OB-GYN, Dr. Michael Maylaert, said in a statement that while she is pregnant with twins, "there appears to be a discordant growth pattern, possibly due to superfetation. This is an unusual and rare condition, but the possibility is real." He said it can only be confirmed after delivery by chromosomal and metabolic studies on the babies."

Dr. Maylaert said Julia's condition was evaluated at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, which confirmed the suspicion of superfetation.

"Are you guys convinced it is superfetation?" Smith asked.

"In our hearts, I believe that we both are convinced that it is," Juila said.

"I am definitely," Todd added.

Both babies will be delivered at the same time.

Through aminocentesis (a biopsy of the developing placenta before the thirteenth gestational week), the Grovenburgs could officially find out the exact difference in age between the two babies, but they have decided not go that route.

"It was from my understanding that we could find out from aminocentesis, but like you said, it's unchartered territory, so for me to answer that right now, I think it would be up to another specialist to confirm that," Julia explained.

The Grovenburgs have refused to do aminocentesis because "the babies are healthy," Julia said. "There's such a high risk in doing that and we feel so blessed to have two, we did not want to do it."

From what they can see, both babies are doing fine.

"Absolutely. We've been cleared from the Arkansas Children's Hospital," she added.

Smith wished the couple the best of luck for the "blessed double event."

"We're sure it will be," Julia said.

"We're very happy," Todd added.
 
How's this process today?
"We have something which might be rare"
"Okay, which TV show do you want to appear on first?"

:eyebrow:
 
When Arkansas mom and reality TV star Michelle Duggar announced on the Today show Sept. 1 that she was pregnant with her 19th child, millions of Americans expressed joy and amazement.

Just read that she had baby 19 already:

Josie Brooklyn Duggar checked in at 6:27 p.m. She weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces and was reported to be resting in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. A family spokesman told People magazine that the infant was expected to be fine.
 
the Duggars aren't gay, are they?

that could really, really warp a child and stunt their sexual development.

Well, statistically speaking, one of their kids will probably turn out to be gay and will grow up in an environment where he or she's taught that people should get as many children as possible. And of course, that you can't have any if you're gay. And this is how people get screwed up.
 
I have to say, I watch the show whenever I happen to see it, and I agree. The things I read about them are kind of shocking. Very limited TV and internet usage, all dating must go through the father first, all dates must be chaperoned by a parent, girls can't have short hair or wear long pants, girls must stay at home until they get married, girls can't go to college, no physical interaction or kissing until marriage. Plus the dad ran for the US Senate a while back, which means he would have been gone a lot of the time.

I guess I shouldn't judge, and if they're happy and following their religion without hurting anyone... it's just VERY different.

:ohmy: I shouldn't judge either, but this sounds like some sort of cult!
 
^ The dad ran for U.S Senate??? Yikes! Thank God he lost. I wouldn't want someone who so obviously thinks women are second-class citizens having any say in the way this country is run.
 
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