Fans Of ‘Counting On’ Worry Jill Duggar Dillard Isn’t Qualified To Midwife, Thinks She Put Joy-Anna in Danger

Fans of Counting On already know that Jill Duggar and her sister, Jana, have had an interest in midwifery for a long time. Both of them have trained as apprentices, though Jill has stated that she has had over 3,000 hours of midwife training, according to People Magazine. Her actual qualifications, however, are a bit murky, as many fans who are midwives have stated that they’ve never actually seen her name on the list of those who are qualified to attend to birthing.

Derick Dillard stated on his social media that Jill Duggar Dillard did have a midwife certificate, but many fans doubt that she has a full one, meaning that her certificate is likely a lower level of midwifery which doesn’t make her eligible to be alone in the birthing process. Some certified midwives have even nicknamed her certificate as a “Counterfeit Midwife,” as stated by Dr. Amy Tuteur on the The Skeptical OB back in 2015.

While Jill Duggar Dillard spent time attending to births in Central America, some fans of Counting On criticized her for using her “skills” to attend to her sister Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth’s birth.

Members on the forum “Previously.tv” stated that Jill was a “failure of a midwife” and said that they were appalled at the way she handled Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth’s birth of her son Gideon. Joy-Anna labored for nearly 20 hours before she went to the hospital for a C-section, which some fans blame Jill for. They could not tell that the baby was in a breech position until it was almost an emergency situation, which fans also criticized Jill for.

The Duggar family has been criticized many times for their attempts at home births, which a few times have gone horribly wrong. Many fans refer to them as “botched home births,” even though in all cases both the mother and child have survived unscathed, though often with medical intervention.

In Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth’s case, she was taken to the hospital after she could not dilate past 6 centimeters. Jill and Joy-Anna Duggar’s sister, Jessa Duggar Seewald, was rushed to the hospital after giving birth to her son, Spurgeon when she began to bleed uncontrollably. Jill herself has had two C-sections, one which was done after she was left to labor for almost three days before being rushed to the hospital.