Jill Duggar is happy with her pregnancy, and wanted the world to know about it as soon as possible.
The "19 Kids and Counting" star is expecting her first child with husband Derick Dillard, and they announced it merely two months after the wedding.
In an interview with Page Six, the reality show star explained why she had to announce her pregnancy this early.
"Understanding that the majority of miscarriages happen within the first trimester," the 23-year-old mom-to-be said, "and believing that every life is precious no matter how young, we decided to share our joyful news as soon as we could."
A lot of the show's followers were shocked when Us Weekly confirmed Jill's pregnancy last August. Some were speculating that Jill and Derick broke their vow of staying chaste and saving themselves before the marriage.
The Duggar children are known to follow a strict rule wherein they are not allowed to kiss or even hold hands when dating.
But Jill clarified the speculation. She reassured the fans that she and Derick kept their vows and had their first kiss at the altar.
"We prayed a lot, prepared and really didn't see any reason to have a long courtship and engagement," Duggar explained. "Once we knew we wanted to get married, we didn't want to put off the wedding for a long time and provide a stumbling block for ourselves; We purposed to save ourselves physically for each other within marriage (even our first kiss for our wedding day!), so we had a short engagement period," she continued.
She also gave a piece of advice to couples who prefer to have a longer engagement period.
"You may not wanna push the wedding date out too far, as those natural God-given desires with too much time between engagement and marriage can make it harder to remain pure," explained Jill. "If you are financially ready, and things are in place (which should be at the time the question is popped), we believe an engagement should only be long enough to plan a wedding!"
Jill and Derick, whose baby is due to come out sometime in March 2015 would like to have more kids in the future.
