RE: Digest Number 2000

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:54:10 -0000

> Why on earth/lozenge would she want to spend the equivalent
> of nine months being ill and then do a "medically" risky HQ,
> unless she actually also wanted the "good bits" of
> child-raising (whatever they are)?
>
> Hmmm, since when has pregnancy been an illness?

More or less since it was invented... There's biblical references to the pain etc. being a punishment for whatever Eve did wrong. People seem to get maternity leave for it, these days. And even before vanishing and leaving the rest of us to do their work, they hang around talking about morning sickness and backache. Presumably they haven't just invented these things. It's nasty. It wrecks your life. It's not as bad in Glorantha as in the RW because there's the clan to do child-rearing (and Glorantha being under-populated not over-, there's a lot more incentive!), so you only lose a few "months", not the next twenty years, but it's still a non-trivial event.

> Both my wife and sister in law were extremelly active during their
> pregnancy.

Lucky them. This is not the norm.

> Also where has this medically risky HQ concept come from?

All the references to brave women doing this important and risky HQ for the good of the clan. I don't have the Ernaldan references to hand, but I know there's a few in the Vinga writeup.

> I can tell you that modern
> medicine has resulted in severe iatrogenesis of the birthing process.

Severe what????