Farrowing - The Birth Itself

Most sows farrow perfectly well on their own. Your job is to be present, keep the environment right, catch the small number of problems early, and otherwise stay out of the way. Knowing what normal looks like is what lets you recognise abnormal.

The run-up

In the day or so before farrowing you will see the udder become full and firm, milk that can be expressed from the front teats, a swollen and slackened vulva, sometimes a small amount of mucus discharge, restlessness, and nest building. She will carry bedding, root at the floor, get up and lie down repeatedly. Nesting is the strongest practical warning that farrowing is close.

Stage one: opening

The birth canal opens and contractions begin. She lies down, usually on her side, breathes faster, may shiver or twitch, and her tail flicks. She may pass small amounts of fluid or discharge. This stage typically runs a few hours. Keep the pen quiet. Do not disturb her, do not bring visitors, do not move her.

Stage two: delivery of the piglets

Once she is straining properly and the first piglet is out, the rest follow. In a normal farrowing:

• The whole farrowing usually takes about 2 to 5 hours from first piglet to last.
• Piglets arrive roughly every 15 to 20 minutes on average, though the intervals vary. Some come in quick succession, then there is a pause.
• Piglets may be born head first or hind feet first. Both are normal in pigs. Do not panic at a backwards piglet.
• Each piglet arrives in or with fluid and membranes. A live piglet clears its own airway, shakes its head and starts moving within seconds to a minute, then crawls forward along the sow towards the udder.
• Some afterbirth may pass during farrowing, not only at the end.

Smallholder litters in this region are commonly 10 to 14 born. A larger litter naturally takes longer to deliver.

Stage three: afterbirth

The placenta is normally passed within a few hours of the last piglet. Check that afterbirth has been passed, and remove it from the pen so the sow does not eat it and so it does not rot in the bedding. If you see no afterbirth at all many hours after the last piglet, and the sow is straining, dull or has a foul discharge, that is a vet call.

What you should be doing during a normal farrowing

1. Be present, quietly. Attended farrowings save piglets, mostly because someone is there to dry a chilled piglet or move one out from behind the sow.
2. Keep it warm for the piglets and cool for the sow. Newborn piglets have almost no fat reserve and chill fast. Make sure the creep heat is on and working.
3. Dry each piglet with a clean towel or dry sacking as it arrives, clearing the mouth and nose, and place it at a teat.
4. Record. Write down the time of each piglet, whether it was born alive, dead or mummified, and anything unusual. This record is what lets you compare farrowings later.
5. Keep the pen quiet and dim. Noise, dogs and strangers make sows restless, and a restless sow crushes piglets.

What you should not do

Do not put your hand inside a sow that is progressing normally. Do not pull on a piglet that is emerging on its own. Do not give injections or drugs to speed up labour on your own initiative. Do not move the sow. Do not let children or visitors into the pen. Every unnecessary intervention adds infection risk and stress.

Stillborn piglets do occur even in normal farrowings, and they are more common late in the birth order and in very long farrowings. A count of stillborns that keeps rising across the herd is a management signal, usually pointing to over-fat sows, long farrowings, heat stress or poor supervision.

The two errors farmers make are opposite and both cost piglets. One is putting a hand inside a sow the moment she is slow, which introduces infection and injures her. The other is sitting through six hours of unproductive straining and losing the whole litter. This lesson gives you the line between them.

The decision rule

Judge on time since the last piglet combined with whether she is straining.

• Quiet, resting, not straining, last piglet under an hour ago. Wait. Pauses are normal. Keep watching, dry and settle the piglets already born.
• Strong, repeated straining for about 30 minutes or more with no piglet produced. Act. Something is obstructing.
• No piglet for around 45 minutes to an hour and you believe more are still inside (her flank is still full, or her recorded litter size history suggests more). Act.
• She has stopped straining entirely, is exhausted, dull or has given up. Act, and expect this to become a vet call.

The main practical trigger is that combination: prolonged forceful straining with nothing coming. That is an obstruction and it will not resolve by waiting.

Other reasons to act

• A piglet is visible at the vulva and stuck, not moving over several contractions.
• Only part of a piglet is visible, such as a head with no body following.
• Foul-smelling, dark or bloody discharge during farrowing.
• The sow is very distressed, screaming, or repeatedly getting up and down without producing.

Call a vet or animal health officer immediately if

• You examine internally and find a piglet you cannot correct or move, or you cannot get your hand past an obstruction.
• The birth canal feels dry, tight and closed, and you cannot pass your hand.
• You feel something abnormal such as a twisted or deformed piglet, or two piglets jammed together.
• The sow has a high fever, is collapsed, is not responsive, or is bleeding heavily.
• You suspect the uterus has ruptured or has come out.
• Farrowing has gone on for many hours with a few piglets and clear signs more remain, and your assistance has not resolved it.
• After farrowing: she will not eat, has a fever, has no milk, or has a foul discharge over the following days.

Sort this out before farrowing season. Know the name and phone number of the nearest vet or government animal health officer, know whether they answer at night, know how long they take to reach you, and know what they charge. Write it on the farrowing kit lid. A number you look for at 2am is a number you will not find.

Drugs: a warning

Oxytocin is widely available and widely misused. It makes the uterus contract harder. Given to a sow whose birth canal is physically obstructed, it can cause severe damage to the sow and kill piglets by cutting their oxygen supply, and it is a common cause of preventable losses on small farms. Never give oxytocin on your own initiative, never give it before you have physically checked that the canal is clear, and only use it under veterinary direction and at the dose that vet gives you. The same applies to antibiotics and any calcium product. If you are tempted to inject something, that is exactly the moment to phone instead.

Reduce the need to intervene

Most difficult farrowings are made, not born. The main causes on small farms are over-fat sows, very young or very small gilts bred too early, sows that are too old, heat stress on the day, disturbance and stress, and constipation. Every one of those is a management decision taken weeks or months earlier. If you find yourself assisting most of your farrowings, the problem is upstream, not in the pen.

Write it down

Record every intervention: the time, why you acted, what you found, what you did, and the outcome. Over a year that record will show you whether your assistance is helping and which sows should be culled for repeated farrowing difficulty.

You have decided to assist. From this point, infection is the biggest threat you personally bring, so hygiene is not optional. A sow who survives an assisted farrowing but gets a uterine infection may lose her milk, lose the litter, and never breed properly again.

Preparation, step by step

1. Get help. One person to work, one to hold and pass equipment. Do not do this alone if you can avoid it.
2. Restrain and calm. Work with her lying down. Keep the pen quiet. Do not fight her.
3. Remove your watch, rings and bracelets. Cut your fingernails short. Long nails tear tissue.
4. Scrub your hands and arms to the shoulder with clean water, soap and a nail brush. Rinse.
5. Put on a clean disposable glove, long-armed if you have one. If you have no glove, the scrub matters even more, but get gloves before farrowing season.
6. Wash the sow's vulva and the whole area around it with clean warm water and mild soap, then rinse. Wash away from the vulva, not towards it. Remove all manure from her hindquarters.
7. Lubricate generously. Use obstetric lubricant. Clean liquid soap or a clean vegetable oil are substitutes if nothing else is available. Do not go in dry.

The examination

1. Form your hand into a cone, fingers and thumb together, and insert slowly and gently through the vulva. Never force.
2. Work with her, not against her. Advance during the gaps between contractions and hold still when she strains, or your arm will be crushed.
3. Feel forward carefully. You are trying to answer three questions: is there a piglet within reach, which way is it lying, and is the canal open?
4. Identify what you feel. A head has a hard skull, ears and a snout. Front feet have a joint that bends the same way as the head. Hind feet point the opposite way and you may feel the hock and the tail.

Correcting a simple problem

The corrections you can reasonably attempt yourself are limited, and that is intentional.

• A piglet in the canal, correctly positioned, just needing help: get a finger into the mouth or behind the head, or grip the hind legs firmly, and pull gently, downwards and backwards towards her hocks, timed with her contractions. Steady traction, never a jerk. If it does not move with reasonable effort, stop.
• A head turned back or a leg folded back: push the piglet gently back a little to make space, then bring the head or leg into line with your fingers, protecting her tissue with your hand over any sharp feet. This needs space and a calm sow.
• Two piglets presented together: push one back and deliver the other first.

If you cannot resolve it within a few careful minutes, stop and call the vet. Repeated forcing tears the sow.

After the assistance

• Deliver the remaining piglets as normally as possible; often once the blockage clears she resumes on her own.
• Do not repeatedly go back in. Each entry adds infection risk. Go in with a purpose, resolve it, come out.
• Discuss post-assistance antibiotic cover with your vet. Do not self-prescribe.
• Watch her closely for the next three days for fever, going off feed, no milk, or a foul discharge. Those are the signs of infection and they need veterinary treatment quickly, because a sow with no milk means a lost litter.
• Clean and disinfect everything you used. Burn or bury dead piglets and afterbirth properly; do not leave them for dogs.

Your own safety

A sow in pain can bite and can roll on you. Keep your body clear of her legs, keep an exit route, and have your second person watching her head. Never let a child assist.

Piglets that are born alive but weak, slow or not breathing can very often be saved, and the window is short. Minutes matter. This is a procedure to practise in your head before you need it.

First: is it worth it

A piglet born dead some time ago is cold, limp, often discoloured, with no heartbeat and sometimes with the hooves and skin already changed. Nothing will help it. A piglet that has just been delivered and is limp, blue or grey, or gasping, is alive and is your patient. Check for a heartbeat by feeling the chest just behind the elbow.

The revival sequence

1. Clear the airway first. Wipe the membranes off the face, and clear mucus and fluid from the mouth and nostrils with your finger or a clean cloth. Nothing else works until the airway is open.
2. Drain fluid. Hold the piglet firmly, supporting the head and body, with the head lower than the hindquarters, so fluid runs out of the airway. You can hold it head-down for a few seconds. Do not swing the piglet by the legs: it is often done, it risks brain and neck injury, and gentler methods work.
3. Stimulate vigorously. Rub the whole body briskly with a dry towel or dry sacking, especially the chest and back. Vigorous rubbing is both drying and stimulation, and it is the single most effective step.
4. Stimulate the nose. A gentle tickle inside the nostril with a clean piece of straw often triggers a gasp.
5. Cold water on the head. A splash of cool water on the head and ears can trigger a breath. Do not soak the whole piglet, which will chill it.
6. Assist breathing if still nothing. Gently compress and release the chest at a steady rhythm, or move the front legs forwards and backwards to move the ribcage. Be gentle: a newborn piglet's ribs are fragile.
7. Keep going for several minutes. Piglets that look hopeless at one minute frequently breathe at three. Stop only when there has been no heartbeat and no response for several minutes.

Once it is breathing

Dry it completely and get it warm immediately. A newborn piglet has almost no fat and almost no ability to keep itself warm, and a wet piglet in a draught loses heat very fast. Put it under the heat lamp or in a warm, dry, bedded box. Once warm and moving, get it onto a teat.

Warming a chilled piglet

A chilled piglet is cold to the touch, limp, and will not suck even when placed on a teat. Warm it before you try to feed it, because a cold piglet cannot digest and cannot swallow properly.

• Dry it fully first.
• Warm it gradually under a lamp, in a well-insulated warm box, or against your body inside your clothing.
• Warm water immersion up to the neck, keeping the head out and drying thoroughly afterwards, is effective but must be followed by complete drying or it will chill again worse.
• Do not put a cold, wet piglet straight back with the sow. It cannot compete and it will be lain on.
• Once it is warm and active, put it on a front teat, which usually gives more milk, and hold the other piglets back for a moment if you must.

Getting colostrum into a weak piglet

Colostrum is the first milk, and it carries the antibodies the piglet needs. A piglet that gets no colostrum in the first hours is very likely to die. If a revived piglet is too weak to suck, milk the sow by hand into a clean container and feed the colostrum by clean syringe without a needle, slowly, a small amount at a time, letting the piglet swallow. Never squirt fast, because milk in the lungs kills. Repeat every couple of hours until it sucks by itself.

Do not over-handle

Every minute you spend on one piglet is a minute you are not watching the sow. Work fast, then get back to the farrowing. Keep a warm box beside you so revived piglets can be parked safely rather than needing constant attention.

The first few hours decide how many of this litter you wean. The routine below is simple and it is the same for every piglet.

The newborn routine, in order

1. Clear the face and dry the piglet with a clean towel or dry sacking. Drying warms it and stimulates it.
2. Get it to the udder within minutes. Colostrum first, everything else after. Do not delay a piglet's first feed to do processing tasks.
3. Treat the navel. If the cord is long, tie it with clean string about two to three centimetres from the belly and cut below the tie with disinfected scissors. If it is already short, leave it. Then dip or spray the whole navel stump with iodine solution. The navel is an open door into the bloodstream, and joint infections traced back to a dirty navel are common and often fatal.
4. Check the piglet over for obvious defects: hernias, cleft palate, no anus, deformed legs. Note them on the record.
5. Identify and record. Count born alive, born dead and mummified separately. Note weak and very small piglets.
6. Keep warm. Back under the lamp or into the creep between feeds.

Colostrum: the most important hours of a pig's life

Piglets are born with almost no immunity of their own. Colostrum gives them antibodies and energy. Two things about it drive your management. First, the sow only produces colostrum for a limited period after farrowing begins, and it changes to normal milk within roughly the first day. Second, the piglet's gut can only absorb those antibodies for a short window in the first hours of life, and that ability closes quickly.

So the rule is: every piglet must suck within the first hours, and the earlier the better. Watch the litter and confirm every piglet has fed. A piglet lying at the edge, cold and quiet, has probably not fed.

Split suckling

When the litter is large, some piglets get pushed off. Split suckling fixes this without any equipment.

1. Once most piglets have had a first feed, take the biggest and strongest half of the litter and shut them in the warm creep or a box for about 30 to 60 minutes.
2. Leave the small and weak piglets alone on the udder, so they can take the best teats without competition.
3. Return the strong ones. Repeat over the first day as needed.

Do not leave the removed group away from the sow for long, and keep them warm while separated.

Teats and litter size

A sow can only rear as many piglets as she has working teats. If you have 14 piglets and 12 working teats, two piglets will not get a place. The options are split suckling, fostering onto another sow who farrowed within about the same couple of days and has spare teats, or supplementary feeding. Foster early, within the first day or so, moving the bigger piglets to the foster sow, not the smallest, because the small ones need their own mother's colostrum and the strong ones adapt better.

Very small piglets

Every litter tends to have one or two much smaller piglets. Some will thrive with help, some will not. Give them the advantage: warmth, split suckling, a front teat, and hand-fed colostrum if needed. Be realistic about the labour cost, and be honest that a piglet that has not sucked at all in the first day and is cold and unresponsive has a poor outlook.

Other processing tasks

Tasks such as iron supplementation, teeth attention, tail work and castration are covered in the piglet management module and vary with your system and local veterinary advice. Whatever you do, do it with clean instruments, disinfect between litters, and never do it before the piglets have had colostrum and are warm and settled.

Record the litter properly

On the sow's card write: farrowing date, born alive, born dead, mummified, total born, birth weights if you can weigh them, any assistance given, and the number alive at 24 hours. That 24 hour number, compared with born alive, is one of the sharpest measures of how good your farrowing management actually is.

This is the highest-value lesson in the module, because this is where the piglets are actually lost. Pre-weaning mortality on smallholder farms commonly runs 10 to 20 percent, and up to around 25 percent in poor systems. Of the piglets that are born alive and then die, roughly half are crushed by the sow. Most deaths happen in the first few days.

Half of your liveborn losses are a housing and management problem, not a disease problem. No vaccine will fix it. Your pen design and your presence will.

Why piglets get crushed

A piglet that is cold moves towards the warmest thing available, which is the sow. It lies against her belly or behind her legs, and when she lies down or rolls, it is trapped. Weak and chilled piglets are slower to escape. So chilling causes crushing. The single most effective anti-crushing measure is a creep area that is warmer and more attractive than the sow.

The creep area

• Newborn piglets need a much warmer environment than the sow does. The sow is comfortable in conditions that are far too cold for a newborn, so you cannot heat the whole pen to suit both. You need a separate warm corner.
• Provide heat with an infrared lamp, a heat plate, or a well-insulated covered hot box with deep dry bedding. In many small systems a lidded, insulated box lined with dry straw or grass, positioned out of the draught, works well and costs almost nothing to run.
• Place it where the piglets will actually find it: close to the sow's head end, not behind her, and out of any draught.
• Cover it. A lid or hood traps warm air and makes it far more effective.
• Check it works by watching the piglets. Piglets heaped tightly on top of each other are too cold. Piglets spread out flat and away from the heat are too hot. Piglets lying side by side, touching but not piled, in the creep, are comfortable.
• Keep the bedding dry. Wet bedding removes all the benefit.

Physical protection in the pen

• Farrowing rails. A rail or pipe fixed along the pen walls, roughly 20 to 25 centimetres out from the wall and about 20 to 25 centimetres above the floor, gives a piglet a gap to escape into when the sow lies against the wall. This is cheap, can be made from local timber or pipe, and prevents a real share of crushing deaths. Confirm the exact dimensions against the size of your sows.
• Sloped or shaped walls serve the same purpose.
• Non-slip floor. A sow that slips as she lies down comes down hard and uncontrolled. Bedding, sand or a roughened surface helps.
• Enough space. A cramped pen leaves the piglets nowhere to be except against her.
• Farrowing crates are the commercial answer and do reduce crushing, but they are expensive and raise welfare concerns. For most smallholders, a well-designed pen with a good creep and rails, plus supervision, gets much of the benefit at a fraction of the cost.

Supervision in the first 72 hours

Presence is the other half. Most crushing happens in the first two to three days.

1. Attend the farrowing itself and stay for the hours after.
2. Check the litter frequently in the first three days, including at night if you possibly can.
3. Every time you check: count the piglets, look behind and under the sow, listen for a piglet squealing under her, and move any piglet lying in a dangerous spot into the creep.
4. Keep the pen quiet. A startled sow stands and lies down abruptly, and that is when piglets die.
5. Watch the sow's comfort. A sow that is too hot will not settle. Keep her cool while keeping the creep warm.

Measure it

Record for every litter: born alive, alive at 24 hours, alive at 7 days, and weaned. Note the cause of every death you can identify, especially crushed versus starved versus scours. Do this for six months and you will know exactly where your losses come from, and you will be able to prove whether a change you made actually worked. Without those numbers you are guessing, and guessing is what keeps mortality at 20 percent.