Birth videos for a preschooler

July 5, 2017 7:57 PM

My preschooler has seen that panda birth video on Facebook. What other kinds of animal birth videos would he like?

Preferably non-traumatic! The panda video is a bit hilarious because the baby just pops out. Kiddo is becoming more interested in anatomy, so naked parts are fine as long as the experience is not traumatic!

Yes, humans are animals, too.

We've seen the Babies documentary, but it has been a while.

posted by jillithd to Science & Nature (11 answers total)

Any Tinykittens birth video (Facebook page here)! They're fabulous, and livestreamed, and then you can watch the kittens grow up on livestream for the next 8-9 weeks until they're adopted, and then the whole thing starts again.
posted by ClaireBear at 9:05 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

April the Giraffe?
posted by sestaaak at 9:22 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dolphin birth! A little blood, but watching one dolphin become two is mesmerizing, especially since the first thing the calf does is surface to breathe, and the second thing is swim alongside Mom.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:42 PM on July 5, 2017

Rhino born at Chester zoo, recently, the mother sort of spins around and out pops the rhino!
posted by threetwentytwo at 1:39 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Durrell Wildlife Trust filmed a C-section performed on a 600 gram black lion tamarin, and it is very cool as long as tiny surgery is not a problem.
posted by ChuraChura at 2:37 AM on July 6, 2017

One that I would either side-step, or be prepared to answer some tough questions is (any) elephant birth. It's particularly messy (not a problem for us, but ymmv), baby drops a loooong distance to the ground and the baby elephant is kicked by its mum repeatedly and vigorously to stimulate breathing in the infant. It looks like an attack more than anything else.
posted by metaphorical at 2:40 AM on July 6, 2017

Seconding tiny kittens, and @fosterkittys is another good account that posts a lot of updates from birth to adoption.
posted by Katie8709 at 4:11 AM on July 6, 2017

Tiger twins birth! Also for birth of the human variety, there was just a very unusual episode of One Born Every Minute where a first-time mother gave birth vaginally to twins with none of the sounds or distress that we commonly associate with birth in the Western world.

In general, you will find more of the gentle birth videos you might be comfortable sharing with your toddler among the gentle homebirth and gentle waterbirth videos on YouTube.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:05 AM on July 6, 2017

We've been watching baby chicks hatching and snakes hatching. Some of the snakes immediately hunt (killing baby birds) which is bit traumatic - though my three year old does not mind a bit and it leads to interesting conversations. I'm on a phone, so hard to link to specific videos, but YouTube has a ton.
posted by valeries at 7:12 AM on July 6, 2017

One thing my 3 year old liked about elephant birth videos was the social aspect of it -- in the videos we found, the other elephants surrounded the laboring mother sort of like midwives (I'm not an elephant expert, but this seemed to be common in many elephant births). It helped us explain to our child the purpose of birth helpers. We also did lots of talking about how birth blood doesn't hurt and is normal and part of the process -- that helped him be comfortable with seeing evidence of my bleeding in the weeks after the birth.

Mammal birth videos in general are good, 2nding the suggestion to also search for "gentle" or "quiet" homebirth/waterbirth videos.
posted by FamilyBand at 7:42 AM on July 6, 2017

Micro Pig Birth at Kew Little Pigs London. Watching piglets being born and nursing is the best.
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:06 AM on July 6, 2017