Like mom, like Bibi. Cincinnati Zoo hippo keepers prepped for birth with motherly instinct

They weren't moms when the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Bibi gave premature birth to superstar Fiona. Africa head keeper Wendy Rice and senior keeper Jenna Wingate were among the staff who jumped in to take care of the tiny calf around the clock even as they kept an eye on the hippo mom herself.

But Wingate and Rice are moms now, and as Bibi prepares to give birth again, it seems that the moms – both hippo and human – have some instincts and experiences in common.

Fiona the icon: Cincinnati Zoo's preemie hippo turned 5 this year; fans drawn to story of hope

Bibi's baby: The people who brought you Fiona the hippo were surprised by what's next

Late-term baby nightmares

It is normal, science shows, for a pregnant person to experience distressing dreams about the baby late in pregnancy. The baby is lost, the baby is hurt, the baby isn't well, and mom is desperately trying to fix things.

Wingate just had one – on Bibi's behalf.

“I had a nightmare the other night that Bibi went into labor, and she was, like, roaring and making all these noises that they don't normally do, and I don't know, my dream was just so realistic, and I lost sleep over it,” Wingate said. She tried to give the newborn calf chest compressions, which isn't even possible.

“I woke up and immediately tried to check our cameras and make sure Bibi was OK and that sort of thing," she said, laughing. "And of course, we had just had a power outage and the cameras weren't working at that moment, and I couldn't go back to sleep."

She sent an email at 3:45 a.m. to teammates to make sure Bibi was safe and all plans were in order should the hippo mom go into labor.

Laboring, period.

Everything appeared to be going great during Wingate's pregnancy, and in her 38th week she told her zoo team she’d be back after a routine appointment. “I went in my overalls because that was the only thing that worked with the radio and keys and the pregnant belly. And they decided I was preeclamptic, and I didn't get to go home.”

A little like Bibi, Wingate had to give birth then and there and early. She was unhappy about that.

“And I have no idea if Bibi has any concept of time or if she felt like it was too early or couldn't believe it, of course, but I definitely know mine came a little early, and it wasn't as I had hoped,” Wingate said. “So I wonder if Bibi feels that way also. If I'm being honest with myself, I doubt it, but you never know what they know.”

Unlike Fiona, Wingate's son, Lincoln, was born "big" and healthy.

Fellow zookeeper Rice said her labor and the birth of her son, Lucas, was more like what both keepers hope for Bibi this time around. Almost eerily more so.

“Much like a hippo, I chose to give birth to my kid in the water,” she said.

The average length of labor for a hippo, according to the zoo's research, is about 12 hours, with two to three during which the calf is in the birth canal.

Rice's labor? "It was almost, like, spot on."

“My labor was only about 11 hours total," she said, "and I think I didn't have to push for more than, like, one or two."

Ah, the discoveries

Wingate was a bit startled five years ago when she saw preemie Fiona’s poop. Had she already had a baby, she said, the poop (and maybe discussion of it) would just seem normal.

“Fiona had what looked like, they were calling, milk curds in her poop,” Wingate recalls. “And it's pretty normal for babies who are getting breast milk to have just weird, like, I don't know if you want to talk about this poop, but now it just doesn't seem as odd.”

Every parent knows what it's like to stay awake to watch their baby no matter how many or which hours of day or night that requires.

“I still, to this day, wake up at least three times a night and stare at the monitor until I see his little chest or belly go up and down 19 months later,” Wingate said.

She first experienced that motherly protectiveness with baby Fiona.

“With Fiona that first night there wasn't a chance I was going to sleep. I was staring at her. I was so worried that something would happen on my watch, because the vets went home and we didn't know if she would make it.”

Did Fiona help them mother?

"I would have hoped that my experience with helping to hand-raise a baby animal here at the zoo would have prepared me more, but it just didn't," said Rice.

"Like, straight up did not," Rice said. "I had no idea and was not prepared."

A team of 25 zoo workers including Rice and Wingate cared for Fiona in her earliest, most vulnerable days. "And nobody was ever really alone in any of the decision-making or the worrying," Rice said. "Anytime something was off, we had this whole team of people that would assemble instantly and be like, 'All right, what's happening? How do we deal with it?'"

Both her baby and Wingate's were born in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Translation: No one were permitted to come over and help. Period.)

Lucas, now 2, was born March 22, 2020.

"I feel like it was almost exactly when it hit the fan for everybody," Rice said. "So, in a lot of ways, the support system that usually exists for new moms kind of, like, was not there for me."

Lincoln, now 19 months, was born Dec. 3, 2020.

And Wingate seconds Rice's thoughts.

Fiona loves kids. Do keepers' kids love hippos?

Wingate told The Enquirer before Fiona turned 5 in January that the hippo is especially "drawn to children."

But are the keepers’ kids enamored with hippos?

Yes, said Wingate, speaking of Lincoln. "He's obsessed with hippos. I tried not to make him."

"I have videos of him, like, just yelling 'hippos!' running through the zoo, and, like, pictures of him by the hippos," she said.

She's given him just one hippo toy. It is a hippo bubble wand, but, because of her work, she has hippo paraphernalia and art around her home that may have triggered his interest.

Lucas, though, can do without hippos.

"My son has not a whole lot of interest in animals at this point," Rice said. "He's really into construction stuff and dinosaurs."

On doing it all over again, or not

Rice and Wingate say helping Fiona make it through her first days and months was an awe-inspiring, one-in-a-lifetime experience.

And they're both good with that "one-in-a-lifetime" part. Especially now, as moms with toddlers.

“I really hope that we don't have to step in and raise this baby. As amazing as it was to be a part of that experience – and I wouldn't trade it for anything – it was definitely a process,” said Rice. “Being a new mom with a 2-year-old now, I definitely don't know that I have the energy in me to go through that process again and then go home to my little one and still be an on-the-clock, full-time mom.”

Wingate's take: “I think it will be exciting and, like, a relief if Bibi does a great job and we don't have to step in.

"And we can just be proud of her and watch her as a mom.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Zoo keepers await birth of Bibi hippo calf