Pregnancy is not traditionally a focal point of a Fantasy story. Birth may be a popular starting point, with some kind of portend or prophecy foretelling of the little one's destiny, but the mother is rarely the hero (all credit to Mrs. Potter, who may have been the true hero of that particular story). To be honest, I must admit that I've rarely encountered pregnant characters in any sort of writing, regardless of genre. Granted, pregnancy does limit one in terms of adventuring, and many women who are the heroes of their stories are rather young (therefor un-wed and perhaps virgins as well) at the beginnings of their stories, but the general lack is surprising since, "...every woman was pregnant every eighteen months, on average, during the course of her marriage, hence a dozen times according to the demographic norms of the age."
Obviously a woman in her third trimester is not in the best shape to go out slaying dragons, but then again, life hardy ever waits for us to be ready for any form of adventure. If we do encounter a pregnant woman, they are most often portrayed as hiding those early stages from the world at large (or a clueless Fitzchivalry) before disappearing for the remainder of their term. Obviously, women have been bearing children under the most difficult of situations since time began. Women are able to handle much more pain and stress than we give them credit for. There is no reason why a pregnant woman could not be actively involved in some perilous adventure (plus it'd give an easy method of keeping track of time in the story). Many modern women still work right up until their due date. After all, you don't have to be swinging an axe to have an adventure (though I can think of a few pregnant women I've know that I wouldn't hand an axe to for fear of my life).
Those women in stories who are spoiling for adventure, or just aren't interested in conceiving, seem to regularly imbibe contraceptive draughts in Fantasy stories these days. While there is plenty of historical evidence for concoctions intended to prevent (or abort) pregnancy, most Fantasy writing doesn't seem to provide a reason for the secrecy that they continue to impose on this practice in their Fantasy wolds. Christian tradition has a couple passages that the Church has used to construct its dogma against contraception, but why impose it upon your world? Granted, there are plenty of reasons that a religion might want to discourage its adherents from limiting their reproduction. Another reason for contraception is the stigma of a child being born out of wedlock. Again, not necessarily a thing in your world. Once you remove Christian influences in your setting, many social "norms" become superfluous (unless you reintroduce them intentionally). Maybe a female military would be supplied with contraceptive potions as part of their standard kit. You could put wise-women on the main street next to that stuffy old apothecary. Feel free to remove any stigma if it serves no purpose in your world.
Ladies in courtly stories seem to always be either youthful and unmarried or well past their child-bearing years. Where are the ladies in their prime? While they may be "indisposed" during difficult pregnancies, or during the final few days, most women can, and do take full part in life/work right up until the end of their pregnancies. There is no reason to exclude them just because of their swelling midriffs. Furthermore, a female protagonist who is, or becomes, pregnant during the course of a novel could create a "ticking clock" situation in which whatever task she needs to accomplish would become more and more difficult as time goes on and her condition becomes increasingly more (eh?) cumbersome...
Final thoughts, for the day, connects to the idea that with a married woman being pregnant every eighteen months (take into account that you can't conceive while you breast-feed), there was really very little time that she wasn't expecting or had a little one at the breast. The rich might employ wet nurses for infants and nannies for the older children, but most women would have a full range of children that needed to be cared for (depending upon the depredations of illness), much like the Stark family or the Brady Bunch (though both of these examples had servants to help them). Women in poorer families would be working all the while, perhaps with children underfoot, to make ends meet. Pregnancy was a matter of course for these women. It was no extraordinary circumstance. Children were an increase of the family fortune, by way of a little pair of hands, ready to be put to work as soon as possible. Make sure that moms are an important part of your world.
Some intriguing numbers from the time:
average 12 pregnancies per married woman
25-35% children were stillborn
20% of the dead in cemeteries are children, aged 7 and younger
4.5-6.5 children per household survive into adulthood
No comments:
Post a Comment