Jinger Duggar Reveals How Postpartum Fears Made Her Reconsider Breastfeeding Newborn Son

Jinger Vuolo (née Duggar) opened up about her decision to not breastfeed her newborn son, Finn, just yet, and how her postpartum fears played a part.

The new mom of three admitted that she was “really not ready” to get pregnant any sooner than she did with Finn and said that’s “why there’s a four-year age gap” between him and her youngest daughter, Evangeline, 4.

“Postpartum for me with Evie was hard. It was really hard,” Jinger, 31, said during the Wednesday, April 2, episode of her and husband Jeremy Vuolo’s podcast. “Once I think I was about 14 months or so, I was still nursing and it was something that I just felt, like, I was in a dark hole and I didn’t know what to do.”

She continued, “Talking to a couple of friends, they were like, ‘Oh yeah, why don’t you just stop nursing? Because I think that would help.’ When I did, I felt like I came out of this dark cloud that I’d been in for so long.”

Jeremy, 37, noted that after Jinger stopped breastfeeding Evie, it “was like an instantaneous change.”

“I think it was because at that point, it was overwhelming for me to think of how I was going to wean Evie, but then at the same time, I was also so overwhelmed with nursing, I was like, ‘I’m just done,’” Jinger added. “I didn’t know how to do the weaning process because I was already in such a dark hole, but then just talking to a couple friends [and] my pediatrician gave me suggestions and it actually went smoothly. She had the easiest transition [and] she started taking a pacifier at 14 months.”

However, the situation with Evie left Jinger with some anxiety about nursing Finn.

“Even with this pregnancy, there’s a certain fear that comes back [and] that starts to creep in where I’m like, ‘Oh, now, this is going to happen again and [I’m] going back to that dark place’ where you’re just so down. I never want to be back there again,” the former 19 Kids and Counting star explained. “Of course I want to be able to nurse this baby, but if that doesn’t happen [and] if I need to pump instead and that’s just what I have to do to not [go] back into that postpartum depression then that might be what I need to do.”

Jeremy and Jinger married in 2016, and throughout the course of their marriage they’ve welcomed three children. Felicity was born in July 2018, followed by Evie in November 2020. Jinger just recently gave birth to Finn on March 28, and she announced the big news on Sunday, March 29.

“He’s here!” the couple captioned the clip. “Finally … our baby boy has arrived! In today’s vlog, we share the beautiful moment our girls & family met him for the first time. We’re overwhelmed with joy and can’t wait to introduce him to all of you — plus, we finally reveal his name!”

Jinger said that his birth was a “pretty fairly great delivery” before revealing that she and Jeremy chose the name Finnegan Charles for their newest addition.