By Holly Rasmussen
Another day, another Duggar controversy!
The woman who trained Duggar daughter Jill Dillard in midwifery is speaking out against the home births of Jill and her sister Jessa Seewald. As we have previously reported, Jill and Jessa both planned to give birth to their first children at home, and both sisters experienced issues during labor that caused them to be rushed to the hospital.
Venessa Giron, who owns the midwifery service called “A Mommy’s Butterfly,” trained Jill in midwifery. Many fans assumed that midwives from Venessa’s company attended Jill and Jessa’s recent home births. However, Venessa took to her business’ Facebook page to let people know that no one from her business attended what she believes were dangerous home births.
“We were not Jessa Seewald’s midwives,” Venessa wrote. “I am sad that Jessa suffered a postpartum hemorrhage. I am happy that Jessa and ‘Quincy’ are home safe and sound. Both Jessa and Jill made decisions that do not fairly reflect home birth or the care of the midwives in this state. But what matters most is Healthy Baby, Healthy Mama.”
As you may recall, Jill had to be rushed to the hospital for an emergency cesarean section in April during the delivery of her son Israel. She had spent 70 hours in labor before agreeing to get a C-section. Earlier this month, Jessa had to be rushed the hospital because she was experiencing a postpartum hemorrhage after her son Spurgeon was born. (Click here to listen to the 911 call from that night!)
Another employee of “A Mommy’s Butterfly” also posted that the woman who attended Jessa’s birth was not a certified midwife.
“[Venessa’s] post was made in no way to slam Jill or Jessa,” the employee wrote. “The statement was posted only to contradict the accusations made that A Mommy’s Butterfly was the midwife at either birth. No midwives associated with A Mommy’s Butterfly Midwifery were a part of Jill or Jessa’ births.
“I am in full support of a woman’s choice. However, the woman that attended Jessa and Ben’s birth calls herself a midwife yet has had no training as a midwife. She is not licensed, she is not certified and she has been through no form of training. I think she made the right call in going to the hospital postpartum but I have personally witnessed her make very unwise decisions at a birth.”
Jessa has previously stated that the only people in attendance at her birth were the “midwife,” Jessa’s mother, Michelle Duggar, Ben’s mother, and Jessa’s sister Jana Duggar. Jana has attended many births with “A Mommy’s Butterfly” in the past while training as a doula.
As we previously reported, Jill recently became a Certified Professional Midwife. She was not able to attend to Jessa’s birth, however, because she and her husband, Derick Dillard, and their son are currently in El Salvador doing mission work.
(Photos: Facebook, TLC)
12 Responses
I’m thinking that it was Michelle acting as midwife at Jessa’s birth. With Jana helping.
Jill was not rushed to the hospital. They made the decision to go after she thought the baby might have inhaled meconium. She should’ve gone to the hospital much earlier because of how late she was, but it wasn’t an emergency. She wasn’t even rushed straight to the operating room. They let her labor for awhile before they found out the baby had turned and that’s when they decided to do a C-section.
It absolutely *was* an emergency. Over the past few months she’s provided details that were not given in the original fluff interviews shortly after birth which made everything seem just peachy. After her water broke she tested positive for Group B Strep – very odd that that was not tested for this before the water broke, so the entire time she was laboring she had not been treated in advance which is typical protocol..When she arrived at the hospital, the baby’s heart rate started plummeting and he was (quote) “in severe fetal distress”, most likely due to a number of factors including the bizarrely long labor, inhaled meconium, and the fact he was stuck in a breech position. Hence why it was an *emergency* C-section. The C-Section was not given just because he was breach. The baby’s life was in danger.
Wait, I’m exhausted and maybe not reading this right, but did the lady take a dig at Jana? She trained with them, isn’t technically a midwife, and it’s been stated that she was at the birth? Or is the insinuation that Jessa had another person there and didn’t include her in the list of people who were there for the birth?
Jana trained as a doula, not a midwife. A doula is basically a birth cheerleader that gives emotional support to the mother. They have nothing to do with the medical side.
Who needs midwives when you’ve got an expert like Michelle?
I don’t know why this is the detail that got me, but “A Mommy’s Butterfly”? Seriously?
I know….lol…either I have a dirty mind..or…..
Hahaha! Totally missed that. I was working solely from the premise of “That would even be a cutesy-to-the-point-of-nauseating thing to name a maternity clothing store or pregnancy/newborn focused photography business”. But like all things Duggar it gets weirder the more you think about it!
Seriously…