Have you ever watched a big sow lay down wrong and smash her new born litter to death? I have, and it is heartbreaking. It is too dangerous to enter a pen with a postpartum sow -— even if your goal is to save her pigs. Pigs do kill farmers. The confinement pens for birthing pigs can and sometimes do have a place, until the pigs are a few days old and learn to get out of the way of the sow. Which is worse -— a comfortable fed/watered sow who just can’t move around much for a few days, or 5-15 newborn pigs dying crushed under the weight of a sow???
As a farm boy, while even installing corner protection areas and heat lamps to draw the piglets away from the sow, even laying on ONE piglet, screaming, has resulted in the sow going nuts and attacking the screaming piglet and other piglets, at times resulting in the sow eating some of the piglets. Farrowing is a messy, horrifying, and yet rewarding experience when most, if not all, piglets can be saved. We had sows birthing 21-22 piglets. Try saving all of them!