Jessa Duggar welcomes baby Fern Elliana and gets her first epidural (2023)

After three dramatic home births, Jessa Duggar welcomed her fourth child to a hospital on July 18, and as she groaned in pain during labor, she received her first epidural.

The 28-year-old woman and her husband, Been Seewald, 26, announced the birth of baby number four on Monday and announced today that they have given birth to a girl named Fern Elliana.

As Jessa had been hospitalized due to postpartum bleeding, this time the couple opted for her first hospital birth, meaning Jessa, whose previous births have all been natural, received not one but two epidurals to ease her pain .

Something else was different this time, too: After TLC announced the cancellation of the family's reality show, Counting On, following the arrest of older brother Josh for child pornography, Jessa's mom, Michelle, was there to film everything.

Jessa shared two videos documenting the birth of baby Fern, the first of which was shared the day after her delivery. The second, documenting the birth itself, was uploaded today, two days after the birth.

Jessa and Ben arrived at a local hospital where they had a doula to help them through the process and gave to JessaHip compressions to relieve it during labor.

They waited for it to expand further and listened"Praise music," with Jessa wiping away tears while swaying from side to side.

Twelve hours after delivery, the anesthetist arrived to administer the epidural, a first for Jessa that had come naturally at home in the past.

The first shot didn't work, so he took a second, and then an additional mediation hit.

Once they have entered, she asks the anesthesiologist:"Do you catch babies? Because the thing comes out.

When it came time to push, a doctor and two nurses asked Ben if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord, which he declined.

“Ben doesn't like the sticky stuff. He prefers to be on his head," Jessa's mom, Michelle, can be heard saying.

Michelle continued to speak words of encouragement in her high-pitched voice while Jessa groaned in pain.

Michelle not only lent a helping hand but also filmed the whole thing as the family didn't have the professional camera equipment they're used to.

Jessa's other three births were filmed by TLC for their reality show Counting On, but now that the network has scrapped the show, Jessa has taken a DIY approach.

On camera, Jessa screamed and gave one last push, and the baby was born with a "thank you, Jesus."

Jessa continued to sob as Fern was placed on her chest and the medics surrounded her.

Some time later, Ben was able to hold the baby for the first time and looked at his wife to say, "Well done dear. Praise the Lord!'

The baby was 21 inches tall and weighed 8 pounds. 5.9 ounces

Due to visiting restrictions, the couple's other children, five-year-old Spurgeon, four-year-old Henry and two-year-old daughter Ivy, first met their new baby sister via a FaceTime call.

Jessa and Ben announced they would be pregnant again in February, and fans speculated that she would attempt another home birth following her horrific experience with Ivy, but they clearly decided to play it safe.

"Ben and I talked a lot about it, and we decided that this time we're going to have a hospital birth," she said in June.

"Then it will be different. I've had three home births, three great home births, good experiences. There were no complications from the delivery itself, but I had postpartum hemorrhage twice, the first and third time," she continued.

"And that's why we choose to have a hospital delivery, just so we don't have to worry about transportation if I end up needing Pitocin.

Oxytocin can be used to stop bleeding after childbirth.

"In a way, it's a little frustrating because midwives in most neighboring states can carry and administer oxytocin at home and during a home birth, and Arkansas doesn't allow midwives to do that," she said.

Jessa admitted to being a little nervous and said she will miss the comfort of giving birth in her own home.

"I was so used to being in my own space during labor and moving around and having the comforts of home and I love that," she said. “And in that sense, a hospital sounds very different.

"And I was wondering if I could relax in this environment? Will it be able to continue or will my body be stressed and tense? I don't know.

"But at the same time, hospitals have epidurals," he said. "I've said to my birth team and family, 'Yes, if I go to the hospital, I'll end up having an epidural.'

I've done the natural three times now and wouldn't be surprised if I got an epidural. But we'll see, I don't know,' he said.

Though she wasn't thrilled with the plan, she admitted her husband was pleased.

"I think home birth is more stressful for Ben, so he's excited about the hospital birth," she said.

Announcing the pregnancy earlier this year, she and Ben said: "We are so thankful to God for the precious gift of a new life! The kids love it and we can't wait to hold this little one in our arms this summer.”

The happy occasion comes at a difficult time for the Duggar family, with Jessa's disgraced older brother, Josh Duggar, accused of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material in May.

At the time, Jessa and Ben issued a lukewarm statement on the matter, which appeared to conflate child sexual abuse material with pornography.

"We are saddened to learn of the charges against Josh," they said. “As Christians, we reject any form of pornography or abuse and want the truth, whatever it is, to come out.

"Our prayers are with his family as they are going through this difficult time," the couple concluded.

Despite the personal turmoil, at least the birth of her baby Fern seems to have gone well, a big change from her previous experiences.

When she gave birth to Ivy on May 26, 2019, they delivered on an absorbent pad on the family's couch, after which her midwife called 911 and requested an ambulance to pick up the still bleeding new mother and take her to the hospital.

At the time, Jessa said her birth plan was to give birth with a midwife in a delivery room at the local hospital. Unfortunately, the morning her water broke was the same day her midwife left town for a week because she didn't expect Jessa to go into labor for a week or so.

"I didn't expect to be early, I expected to be five days late again, we thought we had two weeks left. So our backup plan was to call another midwife and do a home birth," she said.

After Ben's mother picked up her children, Jessa worked around the house with her backup midwife and older sister Jill.

Jessa's labor wasn't progressing as quickly as she had hoped, and she tried a castor oil shake and a trip to her parents' house to walk up and down the stairs to speed up the labor.

Eventually things started to move and Jessa went home to go into labour. With her sister, husband and midwife Teresa, she walked into the living room and leaned across the brown sofa, moaning in pain and waiting for each contraction.

While the Duggars are famous for their privacy and modesty, they're pretty open to showing all the less-glamorous parts of childbirth on TV, and Jessa didn't hold back, allowing a camera crew to film her moans of pain and pain. lies down on an absorbent pad on the sofa.

The camera rolled as she pushed, and little Ivy came out, leaving Jessa exhausted and crying.

After the midwife placed the newborn in Jessa's arms, she soon handed him over to Ben, who took over while Mom cleaned up.

"It was a very special moment, meeting our third baby for the first time," she said.

But the blissful moment didn't last long. Jessa continued to bleed after the delivery, to the point where it was decided she needed to be hospitalized.

A midwife called 911 and paramedics soon arrived to load her into an ambulance. At the hospital, Jessa was given oxytocin, a drug to stop bleeding, but she did not need a transfusion.

Jessa had an equally dramatic birth with Spurgeon in 2015. At the age of 23 she gave birth to a child9 pounds, 11 ounces baby after 27 hours of work at home during which she sufferedsevere tear and required an emergency blood transfusion.

The graphic birth was aired on an episode of Counting On.

When asked if the delivery was better or worse than expected, Jessa answered "worse" without hesitation.

"I said to my mom, 'I don't know how you did that 19 times,'" she said.

Her work with Henry was uneventful, lasting only a few hours and not requiring an ambulance trip.

"I feel very different, I wasn't as tired as I was after Spurgeon's long birth," Jessa later said. "The recovery was completely different."