Duggars Visit Fertility Doctor to Explore Expanding Brood of 19

Published
TLC

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar -- stars of the TLC hit show 19 Kids & Counting -- have made it no secret that they would like to keep expanding their family as long as it's possible and safe for Michelle to keep bearing children. In a new preview clip from the show, the couple seeks the assistance of a fertility doctor to explore the possibilities.

In the clip -- exclusive to the Today show -- Michelle explains why she sought the help of a doctor to help decide how to proceed. "We would love more children if God saw fit to give us more, I just want to make sure that I am ready to catch a baby if that would happen," she said.

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"If I am in that season of life where we're not able to have any more,
then I'm fine, I 'm happy with that," Michelle, 47, said of her visit to
Dr. Paul Wendel, an OB-GYN in Little Rock, Arkansas, who specializes in
high-risk pregnancies. "But if there are things physically I need to
know, that I need to do, health-wise just to be ready to catch a baby if
God saw fit to give us one."

"We do see occasionally pregnancies in women who are 47, 48, 49, even 50 but they are very unusual," Dr. Wendel says.

The couple's youngest daughter, Josie, was born more than three months prematurely after Michelle suffered a life-threatening bout of preeclampsia, but she fully recovered and is now a healthy 4-year-old. In 2011, Michelle got pregnant with her 20th child, but suffered a miscarriage that was discovered during a routine ultrasound at 19 weeks.

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