Reflecting on the Old Testament account of Job helped Seewald realize how it’s possible to still say “God is good” in the face of suffering. She adds, “I was able to thank God in that moment for giving us this life, even if we would never be able to hold this baby in our arms.”
“I feel like in some ways, missed miscarriages can be so much more jarring because you don’t have clear signs of something going wrong,” she said. “I had minimal spotting for like, 24 hours, and that was it.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, a “missed” miscarriage is one in which the fetus either dies, or is never formed in utero, but the pregnancy is not expelled from the body.
Because Jessa Duggar Seewald has a history of hemorrhaging, her doctor advised against passing the lifeless fetus at home. So she had a D&C at the hospital, which left her feeling “devastated” and “hollow.” Despite the heartbreak, Seewald says she felt God’s “presence and peace.” Next up, she plans to pause her social media posts and focus on recovery.
A dilation and curettage (D&C) is the process of removing uterine tissue to either diagnose or treat uterine conditions or after a miscarriage or abortion.
Seewald, an outspoken pro-life activist clarified in a comment posted under her YouTube channel that her baby’s heart had stopped beating three weeks before her D&C. She noted that she also had a D&C two weeks after the birth of Ivy, due to a retained placenta.
Telling their children about the miscarriage was hard, she said.
“It’s been a journey, and it’s one that I am still on,” said Seewald.
“Walking through loss, your heart goes out to moms who struggle with infertility or who have lost babies,” she added. “It’s very painful.”
