My Best Advice for an Enjoyable Birthing Experience

It's definitely not what you think!

“Come on girl, why are you crying?” I whispered into the dark. It seemed like I’d just gotten to sleep on my camping pad in the fostering room when Ivy became unsettled again. It had been like that every day and night for the ten days she’d been here. Pacing. Whining. Meowing. I understood the distress of those horribly uncomfortable last days before birth finally pushes a new life into the world.

I couldn’t connect to, and could only imagine, the additional stress Ivy was under from finding herself a lone kitten in my home. She’d been one of thirty cats in a home of a woman who wanted only one. With no services to spay Ivy and no financial support if there had been, one cat became too many.

Six-month-old Ivy was removed from the house where all of her siblings and playmates still resided, including three sisters, nursing new litters of their own. It broke my heart in so many ways to know her struggle.

I turned over and began to pet her reassuringly when I heard the cry again. It was coming from somewhere else in the dark room, but not from Ivy. In fact, Ivy was staring at me with wide eyes and a questioning look like, “What was that?”

With the speed of a fired cannon ball, I grabbed my phone, clicked the flashlight, and scanned the room. In the corner, with four legs swimming like a baby seal with macrocephaly, was a newborn kitten. “Oh Ivy, you’re a momma,” I cooed to her. I donned a pair of rubber gloves and carefully lifted the peeping, squirming, still wet baby and placenta into the birthing box. I carefully lifted Ivy into the box, too.

“Mia!” I shouted into the phone. “Come now. The babies are on their way!” I could hear my adrenalin transfer through the night as she kicked off covers and began to stumble through her second floor bedroom in her rental across town. In record time, Mia and friend Corey appeared in the doorway of the foster room just as baby number two slid from the birth canal.

Mia, two years into veterinary school, donned a head lamp and gloves. Corey followed suit. Together they tied off the cords and separated the placentas using the strong thread and scissors I had at the ready. I had hoped Ivy would have taken care of things on her own, but she looked as mystified as one would expect from a kitten giving birth to kittens. No worries. Help was here.

Mia and Corey nestled each kitten against the downy fur of Ivy’s belly. The race for a teat began. No sooner had the babies settled when Ivy stood, turned, and delivered her third and final kitten.

In the cardboard box that had once held holiday presents, Ivy settled into the business of mothering. Mia, Corey and I, watched with reverence until we were overcome with exhaustion from the peace settling into the room. We placed the cover on the birthing box and gave the new family their space. Corey fell asleep on the camping pad while Mia and I talked quietly as the earth turned towards dawn.

If you want an enjoyable birthing experience, foster a pregnant kitten and call the kids to join you!

As you celebrate Earth Day, please remember to “Adopt. Don’t shop.”

Better yet, make my day. Foster a pregnant cat. Give her a warm, safe, predator-free space to bring her babies into the world.

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