Jill Duggar Gets Candid About the ‘Shift’ in Mindset Amid Birth Control Usage With Husband Derick Dillard

Jill (Duggar) Dillard is opening up her decision to use birth control. After confirming last month that she and her husband, Derick Dillard, use non-hormonal birth control, marking just her latest shift away from her family’s conservative beliefs, the Counting On alum opened up about her decision and the “shift” in mindset it involved.

Speaking with PEOPLE, the 29-year-old mom of two – she shares sons Israel David, 5, and Samuel Scott, 3, with Derick – said that she eventually came to feel that “it wasn’t wrong if you decide as a couple that it’s best for you to wait” to have more children, a belief that was “a shift” away from her family’s beliefs. The former TLC star, who is the fourth of 19 children to parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, explained that “growing up, it was ingrained in me that if you don’t have as many kids as you’re able to, that there’s something wrong with that.” Dillard said that while “children are a blessing,” that doesn’t “mean that at all costs, you should have as many kids as possible.”

Dillard, who married her husband in 2014 and welcomed her first son via C-section in 2015, after which her doctor recommended she wait 18 months to get pregnant again, said that while her beliefs may go against those of her parents, to some extent, believes “you need to do what’s healthiest and best for your family.” She said that she and Derick rely on “non-hormonal birth control,” such as various barrier methods, though she doesn’t “expect everyone to understand why we’re making the decisions that we are.”

Dillard had first opened up about her decision in a Q+A video she and her husband shared in late September, confirming, “we use birth control, but we prefer to use non-hormonal birth control methods because we don’t want to use anything that could potentially cause an abortion.” She explained that with “more research,” her views on several things have “changed a little bit.” She did, however, note that her views are still based on the Bible, just a different interpretation of the words and that her family’s, and added that their “ultimate goal is still to glorify God in our actions, in everything that we do and our decisions that we make.”

Dillard has long been known to be a rule breaker. Along with opting to use non-hormonal birth control, she’s no stranger to sporting jeans, rocking a nose ring, donning some (modest) swim attire, or even allowing herself to enjoy the occasional cocktail, all things that her family would typically refrain from doing.