Marden gives birth to Dorstone

Giving birth is stressful and it hurts.  I have a healthy son and all is well.  But his birth took longer than usual because he was big and I am small.

All my field mates – Maes Howe, Long Meg and Hetty Pegler knew I had started giving birth and left me to it, but our people stayed close.  I can’t help myself – I’m known as the ‘feisty female’ of the herd and so even in giving birth I needed to be Queen Bee.  I climbed to the top of our mound and gave birth in the dust.

Now, usually we deliver standing up.  We kush a few times to sort the cria’s position, then stand again, but this wasn’t working for me, so I lay on my side and it worked a treat.  It was a long birth, probably took an hour.  Our people did actually help but I wouldn’t let them know that.  They tore the membrane off my son’s nose as he was still being delivered.  All was well, but if it had been a tricky birth he could have suffocated.

And of course, in giving birth lying on my side, he sort of oozed out, and there was none of that lovely gravity stuff to help my boy crash to the floor and shock him into action.  Our people pulled my son out at the end as he was thrashing about and, let me tell you, crias have very sharp little toenails, and I was glad they did.  Didn’t want to have any nasty scratches.

And there he was.  All brown and handsome.  He is called Dorstone

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