Jessa Duggar Hits Back at Suggestion She and Husband Ben Seewald Are ‘Breeding Like Rabbits’

In a new YouTube video shared this week to the couple’s account, the pregnant 19 Kids and Counting alum addressed the upcoming arrival of the pair’s sixth child — and responded to commentary about how many children she’s had so far.

The 32-year-old ex-reality star currently shares five kids with her husband: Henry, 8, Spurgeon, 9, Ivy, 5, Fern, 3, and George, who is 14 months.

“Honestly, I have heard a lot of rude and unnecessary comments but generally those are just online.,” she shared.

“You know, people might comment under this YouTube video and be like, ‘Oh you’re breeding like rabbits,’ or, ‘You’re crazy,’ or, ‘Are you trying to follow in your mom’s footsteps, are you going to have 19?'” she continued. “I’m not going to have 19 kids, but honestly, my mom is my hero.”

“I love her. I adore her. She is my role model in so many ways,” Jessa added of mom, Michelle Duggar. “Her patience, her love, her gentleness, her kind speech. She is the golden example of a mother in my opinion. So, when people say, ‘Do you want to be like your mother?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, please Lord help me.'”

In the same Q&A video, Duggar also revealed that for baby No.6, she has decided to give birth in the hospital — and, when asked by a fan how she deals with the opinions of other people, she shared a message about staying true to her values.

“I think at the end of the day, it really comes down to being confident in the decisions that we’ve made as a family, as a couple, and before God,” she expressed. “We don’t live for the opinions or the approval of other people, so there will always be people who will be on one end of the spectrum or the other. Whether it’s, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have this many kids,’ or, ‘You should have maximum number of kids possible.'”

“We don’t think there’s anything wrong with spacing your kids or planning your family or being done at a certain point,” she added.

Although she shared her frustration with the internet, she revealed that there was never a game plan for how big a family they wanted to have.

“We weren’t really at a place when we got married thinking, ‘Oh, we’ll just have one or two,'” Jessa said. “Like we were kind of maybe somewhere in the middle range. I think we had thrown out the number seven or something like that.”

“Really we just take it one at a time,” she said. “I always say in pregnancy or early postpartum phase; I’m not really in a place to make a decision whether we’re going to have another one or we’re done. And Ben’s concern is always, first of all, my health. And then also our capacity to care for each one and love them well and help raise them up into adulthood.”

Ben and Jessa have been happily married since 2014.

To watch more of a glimpse into Jessa’s pregnancy journey click here.