alt Hacker News> lot of first time mothers are rather mediocre
I had a hen who was sitting on a clutch of eggs this summer. Did everything right: kept them warm, turned them regularly, etc.
Then one hatched and she promptly lost interest in the rest, leaving them to die.
I worked lambing/kidding season at a sheep and goat (wool) ranch for several years. It quickly disabused me of any notions that natural parenting processes are always or even mostly functional at the individual level.
Sure, selective breeding accounts for part of it, but so does the reality that evolution has tended to select (for many prey animals) for the ability to survive and reproduce a lot, not necessarily the ability to be a good parent.