Supersize Family full transcript

Reporter: Mike Munro
Producer: Rebecca Le Tourneau

MIKE MUNRO: Meet the Duggars. Eighteen brothers and sisters all born to the same mum and dad – one of the largest families in the world.

Ten boys, eight girls all their names starting with a ‘J.’

Michelle Duggar- Our babies are usually about anything from 16 to 18 months apart is the average. Usually nine months of pregnancy and nine months of nursing and then again nine months of pregnancy and nine months of nursing.

I do breastfeed my babies. I feel like that is the best food for them.

JimBob Duggar: Yes we figured she's expressing about 6 gallons of milk a month.

Michelle Duggar- Around here Mum’s nickname is the dairy queen.

JimBob Duggar- Michelle is set up a little differently. She can actually get pregnant while she’s expressing milk or while she’s nursing, most women can’t. At first when we looked back we thought of it as a problem but then we thought we probably wouldn’t have as many children as we have if she had a normal make-up like most women.

MIKE MUNRO: Jim Bob Duggar is dad to this ‘Duggarnaught’ of a family and when we began filming, his 43 year old wife Michelle, was perhaps not suprisingly, was pregannt once again with child number 19.

It was a tragic loss that led them to have so many kids. They lost their secomd baby to miscariage two decades ago.

Michelle Duggar: When we experienced the miscarriage, I think we realised how precious life is. It was devastating for us, we were broken and we just wept and right after that we had twins and then another one and another one and here we are today.

MIKE MUNRO: Some people might think that having 19 children is a little excessive and not understand your motivation, what would you say to them?

Michelle Duggar: For me, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time pooring my life into these children and loving them and just the joy of being a parent and seeing your children grow up.

MIKE MUNRO: And all the children’s names begin with a ‘J’ why’s that?

Michelle Duggar: We didn’t want anybdy to be left out wondering why does everybody else’s name start with a ‘J’ and mine’s different? So we just kind of stuck with a J theme.

MIKE MUNRO: Be it Josh, Jebidiah or Jeremiah, it’s all home schooling for every child. From the computer to one on one teaching by Michelle.

Part of every day schooling includes a religious lesson for the kids, no matter how young or how tired.

Big families are a growing trend right across the American bible belt. Devout Christians like the Duggars are worried about falling populations in the Western world.

Jim Bob Duggar: A lot of countries are having a problem where they’re not even producing enough to take care of their population and they’re actually dwindling. The only way they’re growing is through immigration.

MIKE MUNRO: And that worries you, why?

Jim Bob Duggar: Well it creates a lot of problems. There’s not the younger people taking cae of the older people and it creates a lot of social problems.

MIKE MUNRO: The Duggars are certainly doing their bit.

Jim Bob Duggan: That’s right, we’re certainly doing our bit and we love children.

MIKE MUNRO: Do you ever crave just to be alone occasionally?

Kids: Every once in a while you need that time alone but most of the time it’s just like….

You can find it but it’s not like…

It’s funny how many times when we’re out and maybe we are alone because we have to be so maybe driving in a car or something and it’s like, I want more people around, you know you kind of want that.

MIKE MUNRO: Seventeen year old Jess gave us a tour of their custom-made home. The logistics of raising a family this big are just mind boggling.

Jess Duggan: We have four washers, four dryers.

MIKE MUNRO: The Duggars arwe thrifty too, they have to be. But Jim Bob aso says wise real estate investments set them up and his financial manual is the bible.

Jim Bob Duggan: We took the scripture, Romans 13 that says own anything with love, literally. It’s been so freeing living debt free. We stretch the dollar and there’s always been enough, it’s amazing.

MIKE MUNRO: But not one television anywhere.

Jim Bob Duggar: Our first year of marriage we didn’t have a TV and then after the first year we had the TV hooked up and we had it for about three weeks and we realised our communication dropped off so we ended up pulling that out and that’s been one of the best things for our marriage and our family.

MIKE MUNRO: So it’s kind of ironic they’ve become a surprise television hit themselves. They have a weekly cable TV show, spreading their message of faith and family- big families.

MIKE MUNRO: How many children do you think you’d like to have one day, maybe as many as your mum has had?

Daughter: Maybe more!

MIKE MUNRO: We didn’t know it then but this would be the last time we’d see Michelle after organising the kids music lesson. As the J team played onward Christian Soldiers, she took herself off to bed, six months and in agony from gallstones.

To give Michelle few quiet moments, Jim Bob took the family to the park in their bus, a 40 seater formally owned by a hockey team.

As the family played, Michelle was still in agony. Later that night she was rushed to hospital. Baby number 19 was born three and a half months premature, she weighed just half a kilo. The duggars named her Josie.

Michelle Duggar: She was about 12 inches long, very tiny, the smallest baby I’ve ever seen.

MIKE MUNRO: Josie is healthy and growing every day. With only Michelle and JimBob able to visit her, they give all the children updated photos from their phone on the computer.

And although Josie has given her parents their biggest scare out of 19 births, it certainly hasn’t affected their faith and philosophy about wanting even more children.

So you could guys make it to 20?

Michelle Duggar: Possibly if God sees fit, we’ll see.

MIKE MUNRO: What about 25?

Jim Bob Duggan: Maybe we’ll adopt some.