Elephant Mother's Birth

I adore elephants. And the way they birth in the wild is truly remarkable. We could probably learn a thing or two from them. While they stay calm, and typically birth their babies in the quiet of the night, they also do so peacefully surrounded ONLY by an encircling, protective group of female elephants. Each older mother will turn her back to the birthing mother, so as to keep away any intruders, and allow her privacy, security, and comfort during her birthing time. It is the mother who checks over her baby, initiates and cares for this little one's first moments earthside. She makes sure her baby is breathing, able to stand/walk (to escape if need be), and starts to suckle for those first drops of liquid gold.

Occasionally, when I find myself backed into a corner, or critiqued for my peaceful style of mothering - for protecting my little one against the 'mainstream' influences that would otherwise sever our secure attachment too soon, and quite unnaturally - I am empowered by the way these gigantic, ever graceful yet powerful, elephant mothers eternally protect and care for their little ones, meeting their every need without a mere second thought as to what "the others" may think.

The mother elephant in this video must have felt comfortable enough in her surroundings, and with her human 'companions' close-by, because she births with the power and innate intelligence that we only witness in physiological birth.

Side note: When I was pregnant with my first child to 44 weeks, it consoled me to know that elephants carry for about 20 months... Some as long as 2 years gestation! ;)