Re: Childbirth

From: jeffrichard68 <jeff.richard_at_...>
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:16:13 -0000


> Okay, I'm a guy, and not even a father, which means that I'm only
talking
> from "Outside the experience". If anyone wants to re-figure the
numbers,
> feel free, I'm just making SWAGs here (SWAG: Scientific Wild-Ass
Guesses)

Roderick - this is exactly the sort of SWAG I was looking for!

> First, what is the base chance of pregnancy per year? Hell if I
know (well,
> I *could* look it up, but why bother?) Let's call it 50% per year
that a
> sexually active woman will get pregnant. This is without magic
aiding or
> hindering procreation...

>From a very crude review, it looks like the base chance should be a
little bit less than 50%. Looks like poor medieval women gave birth every 24-30 months. Somewhere between 20-33% of children died within a year of birth.

> So every woman basically has a "Get pregnant 14" as part of
her "Female"
> keyword.

I was thinking a default trait of 6, with lots of augments. That way we don't have to have "Get Pregnant" be part of the "Female" keyword!

> Fertility magic gives Bonuses that are added to the "Get pregnant"
score.
> Infertility magic gives Penalties that get subtracted from it.
> Direct-use magic (like a feat) can be used in place of "Get
pregnant" (or
> the World, for Contraception)

Yep. This makes perfect sense. Might want to add wealth as an augment as well (better diet improves chances).

> For childbirth, what's the normal rate of mortality for Mom &
Baby? Again, I
> could look it up, but I won't bother.

For what it is worth, the medieval mortality figures I've seen suggest that about 20-30% die within a year. 2/3 die before adulthood.

> Midwifery magic (Eninta the Midwife, TR 189 is an example) can be
used, but
> the mother's own magic *probably* cannot (what with all that pain
and all).

Maybe - although I'd be willing to allow the use of an affinity as an augment.

Roderick - you should really write this up and have it put up on the Heroquest website. This is a good, useful approach.

Jeff

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