A preview clip for 19 Kids and Counting has been released via Today in which we see Michelle Duggar, along with husband Jim Bob, visiting a fertility doctor to find out about the possibility of having a 20th child.
The 47-year-old seeks the counsel of OB-GYN Dr. Paul Wendel, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, at his offices in Little Rock, Arkansas. Before the doctor discusses their situation Michelle Duggar states, “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.”
Here’s some of the information that Dr. Wendel shares with Michelle and Jim Bob in the clip:
“We do see occasionally pregnancies in women who are 47, 48, 49, even 50 but they are very unusual.”
“As we age, and more the mother than the father, your fecundity rate, your chance of getting pregnant when egg and sperm meet, naturally begins to drop… And then around mid-40s, certainly at the age we’re at, it’s less than about five percent.”
“The rates of Down Syndrome in moms varies with age. As a rough rule, at age 20 the risk of having a baby with Down Syndrome is about one in two thousand. At 30 it’s one in a thousand. At 35 it’s about one in three hundred and fifty. At 40 it’s one in a hundred. At 45 it’s about one in ten to fifteen. And at 47-48 it’s maybe as high as one in four or five.”
Michelle seems somewhat undeterred by the information provided by Dr. Wendel as she explains that she’s heard this same information all before. She says, “A lot of those risks have already been shared with me from back when I was 36-years-old and on. I think that’s typically what most medical doctors will share because those are the risks involved in conceiving.”
Michelle has discussed her want for another addition to the family previously.
