Terrific piece, right on point as per usual. The isolation, the creative problem solving, the sheer stamina needed to be always "on" - alert to both the needs of the child(ren) and ensuring that they haven't hurt themselves in some way - it's extremely difficult and as you said, not meant to be done alone.

“Years before a mother’s previous children were self-sufficient, she would give birth to another infant, and the care these dependent youngsters required would be far in excess of what a foraging mother by herself could regularly supply. Both before birth and especially afterward, the mother needed help from others.” (p. 31) Without alloparents (kin and others besides the actual parents) to help feed and protect them, few Pleistocene children could have survived into adulthood.

The quote is from Mothers and Others by anthropologist Sarah B. Hrdy