Specifically, I disagree with Paul's assumption that humans suffer more than other mammals giving birth. Dogs - especially first time mothers - suffer quite a bit, and are subject to a lot of complications. (And not just the ones which are bred to wierd body shapes.) Anyone who's read the James Herriot books knows that horses and cows often have foetuses that are twisted around. (Animals which have a lot of young per litter tend to have an easier time, because each pup is smaller porportionately to the mother.) Humans do have a special case with our infants having such big heads, but I'm not sure that's a lot worse than having a foetus with four long, twisty legs, or 12 pups, some of whom die and become septic.
I think that people think they suffer most largely because they don't spend a lot of time sympathizing with other creatures! (This could certainly be said of the Judeo-Christian mythos.) Also, women who don't get a lot of excercise tend to have a more labor problems, so it's not fair to compare our soft lives with those of wild animals. If we ran around as much as they do, or as much as primitive people did, I'm sure childbearing would be easier for us, too.
So much for _my_ little soapbox speech.
> I believe that without a Gloranthan myth that supports painful child birth,
there should
be no actual pain during child birth.
Well, there's still the physical aspect of having to push something the size of a softball through your pelvis. Does Glorantha need a myth to explain why it hurts when you get a sword through your chest?
> Would it be too much of a stretch in a fantasy world to believe
that women find birthing no more painful than a cow?
We do know that Gloranthan women do seem to have difficult births sometimes; Khordavu's mother had to put up not only with birthing Peloria's first heroquestor, but with the idiot priest who sat by her bedside, counting her contractions for posterity! I would bet that there are lots of spells to aid childbirth. There's the troll one, which passes the pain onto the father. Oria and Ernalda probably have spells which ease the pain and make the chances of success higher. Of couse, fathers to be could always make sacrifices at Oria/Ernalda shrines to help their wives, just as their wives pray at the Orlanth shrines when the men are off on cattle raids or at war.
Pam
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