26 Days Until Trek - Birth on the Trail

There are some things we will not experience on Trek, but it is important for us to appreciate that life went on for the Latter-day Saint pioneers on the trail and that included mothers giving birth to children. If things get hard for you on the trail during Trek, think back to this topic and gain some perspective. It could be much worse. In spite of challenges, these pioneer women pushed forward. And in that hardship, I want to believe that there were still those moments of overwhelming love and connection to their newborn babies for whom they were sacrificing so much.

“Since pregnancy and childbirth were not considered cause to delay a journey, the women made do with makeshift care and few comforts. A surprising number of babies were born under trying circumstances, and the outcome for both mother and child was often harsh. Given the difficulties of trail travel and little medical knowledge and practices, the wonder is that more tiny graves did not line the trail west.

“Women gave birth on the ground, in log cabins, in tents, in wagons, under makeshift umbrellas, and under bushes. Patty Sessions noted that one woman made thirteen miles ‘after she was in travail.’ Victorian conventions also suppressed the recording of labor and birthing. One woman appeared one morning in an 1857 handcart company with a new infant in her apron; she had delivered the child alone in the bushes of unknown to the others. Twelve-year-old Rachel Emma Woolley boasted that the birth of her sister in 1848 ‘did not hold the camp up at all,’ but it was rare for a whole company to stop for a delivery.”

Selection from Stanley B. and Violet T. Kimball's 2011 book, Villages on Wheels: A Social History of the Gathering to Zion.

I told my AI image generator to be conservative, perhaps focusing on the mom and her newborn. I also mentioned that my audience were religious teenagers. This was also AI's first image. It works. I told AI that I wanted the same "setting" as the previous images and it took me literally. The background is becoming too familiar. Need to mix it up. Still, I think the mother's face shows not only love for her newborn, but the trials connected to giving birth on the trail.