Here we are in late January and the piglet procession has begun. Mary, a most wonderful sow, gave birth a few days ago to a passel of piglets! I knew she was getting close to farrowing as I have this handy dandy little gestation wheel. You put the arrow on the day an animal was bred, hold it there then let your eyes follow to the corresponding animal, in this case “Sow”, and it will show the date at which piglets should pop out. This wheel has seldom failed me when it comes to pigs as they as a rule stick to the “three months, three week and three days” plan. But Mary, huge as she was, did not pop out piglets spot on time! Oh drat! Well after another consultation with “The Wheel” I discovered to my chagrin that my eyes had failed me and I was a couple day off. Never mind, she had her piglets and relieved my mind. 
I had been popping down to check on her off and on most of the day as I had been able to squeeze some milk out of a teat earlier in the morning which signaled farrowing was just around the corner. After putting Lass away from her calf in early afternoon I checked again on Mary, she had made a lovely nest in the farrowing stall and was now laying outside in the sunshine. I returned to check again around 3:30 and there she was, grunting and straining away with no sign a piglet was imminent. I went in with her to stroke her belly and found a poor little piglet up by her head, sadly it was dead. Not a good way to start a farrowing! She obviously was in a lot of discomfort as she would get up, remake her nest, lay down, sit up, get up and turn around… this I am sure is how the first little piglet met its demise. Mary was definitely acting as if someone was plugging the passage!
She settled herself down and began seriously straining, but with no waggling of the tail which preempts the arrival of a piglet. So mid-wife that I am I crouched down behind her and gently inserted my arm into her to see what was going on. Sure enough my hand encountered a head, a big head, and a set of sharpish teeth that momentarily clamped on my finger! I hooked my hand around the head and as Mary gave a vigorous strain, the offending blocker was safely delivered, allowing his brothers and sisters a much clearer passage to the outside world. After drying the piglet off I put him to a teat to suckle while awaiting the arrival of one of his siblings. Sometimes those piglets can come out one after the other at a remarkable rate of speed! This time however, Mary sedately delivered 13 more piglets in a fashion whereby I was able to dry each one off and glom it onto a teat before the next package arrived. About half way through the birthing a tiny wee little chap came out. He definitely must have been squashed inside with all his brothers and sisters as he was tiny, tiny. Poor little thing, despite vigorous attention, including a bit of mouth to mouth breathing, the poor wee thing just could not breathe properly on his own and sadly did not make it. I hate not being able to save them all!
Right at the very end of the farrowing, Mary was pushing like mad and two piglets came out together, not one after the other but together! The larger one immediately squirmed and floundered about in a very feisty fashion but the other lay lifeless. I quickly grabbed the smaller one, rubbed him, turned him upside down to drain any fluid out of his airway, gave him a breath or two, pummeled him some more until he finally started complaining loudly about this unexpected treatment. He had no suckling reflex, a bad omen for a piglet, but with a good bit of “by gosh suckle that teat” the little chap came around and glommed on.
During this long session down in the pig house the 
temperature had dropped considerably when the sun went down. I was there with Mary from 3:30pm until crawling into bed, very cold and tired at 10:30pm. Darrell had come down to check on the progress and to see if there was anything I needed but I was fine. There is nothing like snuggling up to a sow’s belly to get warm on a chilly night, with piglets also snuggling in beside you for warmth. Mary was quite content to have my cold hands warming up on her rather toasty udder! Well worth the chilly night to see a contented sow, giving out her little special contented grunts as 13 piglets nurse contentedly at her side. When all was over and done I headed back to the house, cold, tired but also very contented. After a quick wash up how wonderful it was to crawl into bed and snuggle next to Darrell who wrapped his arms around my chilly form as I fell to sleep. Yes, well worth those chilly “mid-wife” nights….
