Lambing!

This is our second year lambing. Last year, our 3 ewe mamas all twinned and lambed on their own without intervention. This year our yearling mama, Yarrow, needed some assistance. I observed some discharge and one hoof out her backside early that morning. It seemed somewhat unusual in comparison to the other births. A while later, a second hoof emerged. Yarrow seemed like she was laboring, but was not in distress. She was eating and moving around okay. She would lie down and then get back up. Something seemed odd about the hooves though. They were not how front hooves looked, the lamb was coming out rear first. It was taking a while and the lamb seemed stuck. We tried getting closer to Yarrow while she was lying down which would prompt her to get back up. While getting a smaller area set up to move her to, I noticed her down again and she was bearing down. More of the lambs back legs were revealed. I was able to approach her and this time I got a good hold of the lambs legs. It had been a few hours since I had first noticed her in labor and we were a bit worried the lamb would be stillborn. As I held on to the legs, I felt the lamb move giving me hope she was still alive! I moved my hands up the legs and slowly eased the lambs rump out of mama. She slid out pretty smoothly after that. We put the lamb close to mama, so mama could lick her clean. The baby gasped for air for a bit but was breathing normally in no time. We were very thankful for the good outcome. It was my first time having to help a ewe lamb, I will feel more confident if I need to assist again. :)