Just Call Me The 'Midwife'

 Look at this sweet little newborn lamb leaning into her mama  under the lamp in their stall. If I hadn't played midwife this morning she would most likely not be alive, and her mama would be in sore distress.

I went out this morning to discover TWO ewes licking one newborn lamb clean of afterbirth. Before I could get close enough to check things out the lamb wobbled  from one ewe ( female sheep) to the other, trying to nurse. Both ewes seemed confused , but when Tovah, the sheep in the picture, turned around to lick the lamb some more, things became very clear to me. Tovah had two tiny lamb's feet sticking out of her rear parts  . The other sheep ( Gudrid) had after-birth coming out of hers. Clearly the lamb being so carefully cleaned and tended by both ewes belonged to Gudrid who is a first time mama. Poor Tovah, probably thinking after so much labor and straining must have felt she had certainly already given birth and why was Gudrid helping out with her lamb ?

Now I had a problem. I was by myself, no near-by neighbors to help , and that lamb HAD to be pulled out of Tovah. Desperate times called for this desperate shepherdess to act quickly. How do you restrain an unwilling ewe and at the same time pull out a lamb from her nether parts by yourself ? The only way I could. I grabbed her by the horns and held on with my left hand, pushed her up against the stall wall, leaned against her to hold her there and reached inside her with my right hand to feel out the situation. Aha, the lamb's head and shoulders were pretty big and the lamb was in the right position for a normal birth but too big to come out without assistance. I slipped the lamb's head back a bit inside, then pulled the legs out further, maneuvered the head back out and with my right hand holding tightly to the legs I pulled some more. After gently maneuvering further I got a better grip on the lamb's head & legs and pulled hard. You have no idea how hard it can be pulling a lamb out of a tight spot inside it's mama, sometimes it seems the womb is trying to suck the baby back in, and this was one of those times. But I pulled even harder ( it is always a wonder to me the head doesn't pop off when I have to pull so hard ) and with a loud BWAAAAAAAAAA from the mama her little lamb slid out making a big sucking sound as I plopped her on the straw. A healthy ewe lamb with head still intact !

The minute Tovah turned and saw the lamb all confusion was gone. She went right to work cleaning her lamb. I checked Tovah , Gudrid, and their lambs a little while ago and am happy to say both mamas and their lambs are fine & dandy. Just call me the midwife !

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