Jessa Duggar welcomes baby Fern Elliana in first hospital birth – and gets first ever epidural

After three dramatic home births, Jessa Duggar welcomed her fourth child at a hospital on July 18 — and as she moaned in pain during labor, she was treated to her first-ever epidural.

The 28-year-old and her husband Been Seewald, 26, announced the birth of baby number four on Monday, and today revealed that they’d had a little girl named Fern Elliana.

As Jessa had previously been rushed to the hospital after delivery due to hemorrhaging, the couple opted for their first hospital birth this time around, which meant Jessa — whos past births were all natural — got not one but two epidurals to ease her pain.

Something else was different this time around, too: After TLC announced the cancellation of the family’s reality show, Counting On, in the wake of big brother Josh’s arrest on child pornography charges, Jessa’s mom Michelle was there to film the whole thing.

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

Jessa and Ben arrived at a local hospital, where they had a doula to help them through the process and give Jessa hip compressions to ease her through back labor.

Waiting for her to dilated further, they listened to ‘praise music,’ with Jessa wiping away tears as she swayed from side to side.

Twelve hours into labor, an anesthesiologist arrived to give her epidural — a first for Jessa, who had gone all natural at home in the past.

The first shot didn’t work, so she got a second and then an additional bump of mediation.  

Once they’d kicked in, she can be seen asking the anesthesiologist, ‘Do you catch babies? Cause that thing’s coming out.’ 

When it was time to push, a female doctor and two nurses asked Ben if he would like to cut the chord, which he refused.  

‘Ben prefers not the gooey stuff. He prefers to be up by [her head],’ Jessa’s mother Michelle can be heard saying.

Michelle continued offering words of encouragement in her high-pitched voice, as Jessa moaned in pain.

Michelle was on hand not just as support but to film the whole thing, since the family didn’t have their usual professional camera crew about.

Jessa’s three other births had all been filmed by TLC for their reality show, Counting On — but now that the network has axed the show, Jessa took a DIY approach. 

On camera, Jessa cried out and gave a final push, and the baby was born with a ‘Thank you Jesus.’ 

Jessa continued to sob as Fern was place on her chest and the medical professionals fussed around her.  

Some time later, Ben got to hold the baby for the first time, and looked over at his wife to say: ‘Good job, love. Praise the Lord!’

The baby measured 21 inches and weighed 8 lbs. 5.9 oz.  

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 over a FaceTime call. 

Jessa and Ben announced that they are expecting once again in February, and fans speculated on whether she would attempt another home birth after her scary experience with Ivy, but they clearly opted to err on the side of caution. 

‘Ben and I talked this over a lot, and we decided we are going to do a hospital birth this time,’ she said in June.

‘So, that’ll be different. I’ve had three home births, three great home births, good experiences. No complications with the birth itself, but I have had postpartum hemorrhage two times, with my first and my third,’ she went on.

‘And so, for that reason, we’re choosing to do a hospital birth just so we won’t have to deal with the transport if I end up needing Pitocin.

Pitocin can be used to stop bleeding after childbirth.

‘It’s kind of frustrating in some sense, because most of our neighboring states, midwives are allowed to carry and administer Pitocin at home and in a home birth setting, 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 delivering in her own house. 

‘I’ve just been so used to being able to be in my own space in labor, and move about and kind of have the comfort of home and I love that,’ she said. ‘And so, in that sense, a hospital sounds, like, very different. 

‘And I’ve wondered, will I be able to relax in that environment? Will things be able to progress, or will my body be stressed and tensed up? I don’t know.

‘But at the same time, hospitals have epidurals,’ she said. ‘I’ve told my birth team and my family, like, “Yeah, if I go to the hospital, I’m just gonna end up getting an epidural.”

‘I’ve done the natural thing three times and I wouldn’t be surprised if I got an epidural. But we’ll see, I don’t know,’ she said.

While she wasn’t thrilled with the plan, she admitted that her husband was pleased. 

‘I think home birth is actually more stressful for Ben, so he’s thrilled about the hospital birth,’ she said.

Upon announcing the pregnancy earlier this year, she and Ben said: ‘We are so grateful to God for the precious gift of a new life! The kids are delighted, and we can hardly wait to welcome this little one into our arms this summer.’

The joyous occasion comes amid a difficult time for the Duggar family, with Jessa’s disgraced older brother Josh Duggar being charged with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material back in May. 

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

‘We are saddened to hear of the charges against Josh,’ they said. ‘As Christians, we stand against any form of pornography or abuse and we desire for the truth to be exposed, whatever that may be.

‘Our prayers are with their family as they walk through this difficult time,’ the couple concluded.  

Despite personal turmoil, at least her delivery of baby Fern appears to have gone smoothly — a major shift from her past experiences. 

When she gave birth to Ivy on May 26, 2019, she delivered on top of an absorbent pad on the family’s sofa — after which her midwife called 911 requesting an ambulance to pick up the still-bleeding new mom and take her to the hospital. 

At the time, Jessa said that her birthing plan was to deliver with a midwife in a birthing suite at the local hospital. Unfortunately, the morning her water broke was the same day her midwife left town for a week, not expecting Jessa to go into labor for another week or so.  

‘I was not expecting to go early, I was expecting to go 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 their sons, Jessa labored at the house with her backup midwife and her older sister Jill.

Jessa’s labor didn’t progress quite as quickly as she expected, and she tried a castor oil smoothie and a trip to her parents’ house to walk up and down the stairs in order to speed up contractions. 

Finally, things started to move along, and Jessa headed home for labor. With her sister, husband, and midwife Teresa on hand, she walked around her living room and leaned over their brown sofa, moaning in pain and waiting out each contraction. 

While the Duggars are famously private and modest, they’re fairly open about showing all of the less-than-glamorous parts of childbirth on TV — and Jessa didn’t hold back, allowing a camera crew to film her groaning loudly in pain and positioning herself over an absorbent pad on the couch.

The camera rolled as she pushed and little Ivy came out, leaving Jessa spent and in tears. 

After the midwife delivered the newborn into Jessa’s arms, she soon passed him off to Ben, who took over while mom was cleaned up. 

‘It was a really special moment, meeting our third little baby for the first time,’ he said.

But the blissful moment didn’t last long. Jessa continued to bleed after the birth, to a point that they decided she needed to head to the hospital.

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

Jessa had a similarly dramatic labor with Spurgeon in 2015. At age 23, she gave birth to a 9 pound, 11 ounce baby boy after 27 hours of labor at home — during which she suffered severe tearing and needed an emergency blood transfusion.

The graphic birth aired on an episode of Counting On.

When asked if childbirth was better or worse than expected, Jessa said ‘worse’ without hesitation. 

‘I said to my mom, ”I do not know how you did this 19 times,”‘ she said.

Her delivery with Henry was smoother, lasting just hours and requiring no ambulance ride.

‘I feel totally different, I wasn’t exhausted to the point I was after Spurgeon’s long labor and delivery,’ Jessa said later. ‘Recovery’s just been completely different.’