Yes, a 3-Year-Old Can Deliver a Baby

Um, OK, but technically, the sheep can deliver the lamb without the 3-year-old, too.

Eh, my husband grew up around sheep. Sometimes help is needed. What a cool event for this girl! Unless it becomes the norm and she despises the lsmbing season in years to come.

Wow, that’s amazing what that little girl did but GROSS!

I love seeing things like this. I have a 9 year old who is very into horses. Her after school babysitter is actually the owner of a horse farm so she spends every day around them. She is becoming so much more responsible One evening I went to pick her up and the vet was there. One of the horses had gotten cut on something out in the pasture and needed stitches. She wanted to stay and watch because she was worried the horse might be nervous if no one was around. Since it was getting dark she offered to hold the flashlight so the vet could see what he was doing. She stood there for over 90 minutes hardly daring to move (an eternity for my sweet but very ADD child) as he stitched first the muscle and then the skin. All the while the vet was saying how amazed he was that she could be such a good help and not be upset by the blood (I was holding the head because I was thoroughly grossed out). When he got to the skin he even handed her the scissors and let her cut each of the stitches. She was in heaven. She got to tell her whole class about what she did and now she wants to be a vet herself. I know I’m bragging a little, but my main point is that these kinds of things are so good for kids. My daughter never questioned whether she could hold the flashlight still or even work the strange scissors and I’ll bet this girl didn’t think twice either. She just jumped right in and helped. I wish more kids could have the opportunity to see what they are capable of (or that more adults would let them).

I’m reminded of the toddler I used to babysit. Her parents were sheep farmers, and, well, all I can say is she wasn’t even out of diapers the first time she wanted me to play sheep midwife (using stuffed animals) with her. She was exasperated with me because I didn’t think to immediately roll up my sleeves. 🙂

@James Pollock

Hahaha, yeah, human females can deliver unassisted as well . . . except when they can’t. Babies (of any species) don’t always present correctly in the birth canal. Judicious intervention save the lives of mom and baby (sometimes only one, sadly, but often both) when both would be lost otherwise.

My comment is about what children are capable of doing on their own. i just finished watching “My Side of the Mountain”. It was made from a book of the same name. Showing how a 12-13 year old boy ran away from home to live in the mountains alone and off nature. There were several places were this young boy made stupid mistakes that could have cost him his life and the life of the animals he was responsible. He learned from these mistakes and survived. This story was fictional but it reminded me of my step-brother. Kenny was 4 or 5 years older than I was and was always building ice homes in the snow and spending the weekend in them or spending the weekend out in the mountains living off of what he caught, mostly fish. My step-father made sure that all of us boys could live off the land if we ever had to or wanted to. I used to hate those camp outs, because I was always cold, but in todays world with all the camping gear, it is really a shame that kids are not able to at least try some of these activities. Even though I didn’t like it at the time, I learned so much about myself and the world around me.