In the ideal world, a goat kidding looks like this: Days on end of listening to baby monitors and watching live streams of your goats over a webcam (Jessica has this camera and Carrissa has this fancier camera) for any sign that kidding is starting. You share photos in Goat Groups on Facebook of the back end of your goat asking “Does she look like she’s about to give birth yet?” You stop sleeping. You visit the barn so often that your hair and clothes are filled with hay. When your body can’t possibly take the anticipation any longer, you’ll go to the store to get more coffee. When you return back from that 5 minute errand, you’ll find a mama goat with clean and happily eating babies.
That’s the honest truth of what the majority of goat kiddings look like. She doesn’t need you and often she will kid during the one moment you turn your back. The reality is it doesn’t happen that way 100% of the time. No matter how seasoned you are with goats, you probably live in fear of the time where the doe really does need your help when she gives birth.
Knowing what normal birth looks like can prepare you to use your hands to bring the right part of the newborn into the birth canal to allow for a safe delivery of the lamb or kid.
— Chris Dalziel, Joybilee Farm
Knowledge is power and that’s where Chris from Joybilee Farm comes in. She’ll explain what a normal birth looks like so you can understand the process of assisting and re-positioning kids. She’ll also cover when it’s time to call the veterinarian or your mentor and how to resuscitate in the event you need to.