Wealth is an important factor. I think whether it is the dominant factor depends on how important you view material things as being in Glorantha - by comparison with magical and mythological factors.
>
> Childbirth: Even in places with poor medical care (and without
> magic ) , healthy women have a t least a 90-95% chance of
surviving
> childbrith.
I should hope so - at the lower end of survival chances this would literally decimate the female population.
Whatever ability ratings anyone chooses to use in a contest for pregnancy and childbirth I would suggest that the mother should only be in mortal peril on a complete defeat.
>
> Magic:
>
> In Glorantha, magic would definately help. A woman's own magic
> should actually be a large part of her abilty to conceive, carry a
> child to term, etc. She might not be able to do much DURING
> childbirth, but she could do a lot magically to prepare for it. She
> would probably have a special, magic place, lots of fetishes
around,
> etc. Definately a "women's hut" sort of ritual.
>
In the case of a woman who is a participant in the mainstream mothers' religion for her culture I think the preparation starts from the first ritual she attends as an adult and intensifies from the point where she becomes pregnant. Which is why I tend towards using her relationship to the mothers' religion as the basic ability rating for a good outcome, it measures the likely overall success of all those rituals in which she re-enacted her goddess/great spirit/saint overcoming all the obstacles and dangers of pregnancy and childbirth.
> I would think that super spiffy successes on a birth roll might
> result in the child having some sort of cool ability, or
> guardian, of extra vigor during some week or season , something
> like that. Marked by the gods or spirits, however slightly.
Which fits my personal model of how this works perfectly.
-- Nic
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