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Originally Posted by
blessedwithboys 
It just really sounds to me like she has so many problems nursing that her period comes back sooner than it might otherwise. I bet if she had smoother sailing at the breast and was able to go to toddlerhood, she would only have a baby every 3 years.
I never really had any issues nursing, did natural nursing as you call it (I always just called it nursing 
) and still my babies are almost exactly 2 yrs apart. AF appeared at about 9ish months. My bff also did all the above and her AF didn't come back til 14ish months but her babies are closer together than mine! I'm not disagreeing with your point but I think 3 yrs is a bit much. Even in tribal cultures where BF is the only form of BC, most of their children are about 2 years apart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cappuccinosmom Here's the problem:
There is no credo that one must sign to be quiverfull. A person who rejects birthcontrol on the basis of their Christian faith is "quiverfull". But they may not be Quiverfull with a capital Q, depending on what that means to them. There is no Quiverfull organization to which a person applies for membership.
Originally, the term simply meant viewing children as blessings, and not using contraception. In that sense, the Duggar's certainly are "quiverfull". So am I. They have 19, I have 3.
Like them, in many contexts I refer not to use that term because other people have taken it and made something it is not. When people point fingers and say "You are Quiverfull, you horrible person", they have taken that term and put under it a whole laundry list of stuff--prairie muffin, hypocrite, ultra patriarchal, abusive, anti-education, etc, etc, etc. It is no longer a descriptor of a single belief (rejection of birth control) but an umbrella used to describe a whole mess of beliefs that have nothing to do with birth control. The Quiverful book, and sites like No Longer Quivering have contributed to this change.
Michelle wrote in the book, and elsewhere, that her fertility returns early, and she has to quit nursing due to issues the pregnancies cause with breastfeeding (severe pain and supply issues, iirc). I'm pretty sure that doesn't constitute "weaning early to get pregnant sooner". Because bc is ubiquitous in this culture, it seems hard for people to imagine that a couple could have 19 children without interfering with nature. The Duggar's are unique in their high level of fertility now, but wouldn't have been so 200 years ago. What sets them apart from highly fertile families back then is that all 19 of their children have survived pregnancy and birth and infancy and early childhood. Yet and still, Susannah Wesley (mother of Charles and John, writers of hymns and evangelical revivalists way back when) raised a similar number of children, and was a child of an equally large family. So it happened.
AMEN AND AMEN! Esp not liking to use that term to describe my beliefs about childbearing. In many ways, I believe that people have taken the wonderful blessing and joy of the quiverful movement and made it either something ugly, abusive and negligent OR the proponents of quiverful have turned it into a dogma. You HAVE to be quiverful type thing. If we are turning the bearing of children and acceptance of God's will in having them or not into dogma, into WHO I am, into WHAT and HOW I believe, I are am NOT accepting God's will because I am merely making my children and my fertility into an idol to worship, which, no matter how well-meaning, is unacceptable to God.
I used to use the term quiverful to describe myself, though I no longer do so unless I am talking to someone who understands what I mean. Once I saw that movie that came out a few years ago, I stopped though. There was the lady from NLQ, I believe in it, another woman who ran a homeschool publishing co with her DH and a lady who had 8 children and a patriarical family. The woman with the hs co seemed to be very sweet and loving. The woman with the 8 children honestly scared me. She was like what I call a femi-nazi. You know those feminist type women who would rather die than give up feminism, who are angry, who are determined to be as unfeminine as possible? Those are femi-nazis. This woman seemed like that about having children. She was on a mission to change the world into quivering (pun intended) families and there wasn't love and gentleness portrayed about her, though that might admittedly have been editing of the film. After that, I stopped referring to myself as quiverful. I also don't refer to myself according to the denominational terms. What's the point? We are called to unity and quite honestly, it can and does just become another idol.
I think we should all applaud Michelle Duggar for standing up to the criticism of the world about following God's plan and call on her life; about living a life with children and joy; for having well spoken, well behaved children in a world that doesn't even use common terms of respect like Mrs. or even Miss anymore; for standing before the gossiping hordes of people who talk about her and her choices and what they believe is the silliness of it and refusing to back down, to cower and be afraid of all that. Honestly, I admire her and JimBob too. I admire the children they have raised with life skills and attitudes of honor and dignity in the face of criticism. I admire the fact that they are not refusing more children because of Baby Josie and all those issues.
. But then with my second, I got it back at seven freaking weeks, and I was tandem nursing... omg. Then with my third, not tandem nursing that time, so just one baby on the boob constantly, and again, back right around seven weeks. 
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