Timing of pregnancy debate

[Montero]

Erm. Maybe.
If you've lived in the wilderness for years, would you be the same sort of person as a modern horny teenager?
Historically, some people tended to marry a lot later in order to have some financial security before starting a family.

That's not to say there weren't people who did it anyway - back to 17th century reading (in particular Alice Clerk, Working Lives of Women in the 17th century) there were instances of male and female farm labourers marrying - and their financial security, already low, plummetted when the kids started, as she couldn't work as long or as hard and there were more mouths to feed. Regular source of vagrants apparently. Also tendency for father to leave.

What it comes down to, is how sensible are the couple? What is in character? There are plenty of sensible teenagers out there too. (Assuming the couple are teenaged.)

 

[caters]

But they are not teens. They are both 26 years old which is the beginning of adulthood for their species. And only 1 of them, Lisa, is wanting to be pregnant right away. And I would think that being in the wilderness would if anything, help them delay pregnancy. And they are just a few miles away from Robin's grandparents.

 

[Overread]

How does being in the wilderness delay pregnancy if they've lived in the wilderness for a significant portion of their lives? They've still got a sexual drive and teenager to young-adult its the prime time for flowing hormones and such.

It's not impossible, but you've got to build in a very good reason for them to delay when there aren't other suitors; when they are basically on their own (I'm assuming they don't live with the grandparents because of reasons as yet not mentioned in this thread). And its not so much building in a good reason for them to delay but for them not to give in to a natural and expected urge to mate. Especially if there's basically no social structure around them to reinforce their behaviour. If they've got resources enough to have dedicated time to building a babyroom then that suggests they've got ample resources to survive. That they are likely not suffering starvation


I'd say you want to build your case well and study primitive peoples and even 3rd world nations today and see what happens in their social structures. It at least gives you a base to build from and some real world concepts and pressures to play with.

 

[R.T James]

So they're late 20's in the wilderness since birth?

*scratches head* sure they live close to the grandparents but a few miles is quite a distance via foot. So Basically on thier own.

What ages did they get married? Sorry I'm just hung up on the knitting supplies as well.

Because from what I've seen by that age in the wilderness you'd most likely already have kids.

Isolation tends to make outside reinforcement null and void. So I am curious to how abstinence has worked so far, because at that surely they must have. I mean...

I'll go back to my story where after knowing each other for three years they have a child. That's at age 18 and 17. Completely isolated, and only having each other.

It's bound to happen. Unless these people aren't human, then you might be able to argue special psychology differences.

 

[Biskit]

They are both 26 years old which is the beginning of adulthood for their species.

Unless their species is significantly different from the bulk-standard human, why are they only now worrying about their first kid. On their own, unsupervised etc... why aren't they currently worrying about how to cope with their first-born who is now about to become a teenager?

 

[caters]

Unless their species is significantly different from the bulk-standard human, why are they only now worrying about their first kid. On their own, unsupervised etc... why aren't they currently worrying about how to cope with their first-born who is now about to become a teenager?

Because until they got married at 26 years old with Robin's grandparents celebrating it, they were far away from each other. As children they were just 1 day away. But when Robin went out into the wilderness at 6 years old, Lisa was still at home with her mom and dad. That is, until she was 15 and her parents died. At this point. Robin, who was also 15, was far away from her so there is no way that Robin would have found her at this point. Then Lisa went out into the wilderness and her extreme sadness caught the attention of a lone female wolf. But instead of attacking her, the wolf comforted her and has been her companion since then.

She went through the wilderness until she found an open area just a few miles away from Robin's grandparents. By coincidence, Robin found that same area. So yeah, no chance that Lisa got pregnant in the wilderness. Attacked, absolutely. In fact it is likely that both Lisa and Robin have scars left from animals attacking them. But pregnant, no, not while she was in the wilderness.

 

[Montero]

OK, maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick. The impression I had so far was that they are just starting to build their homestead. So finishing house, just getting crops going etc - which is a very tough time and you'd want to have production going reasonably well before adding to your burdens. If you have lived in that area for a while, then if you had any sense you would know how tough it was and deliberately delay pregnancy until you reached a point where you were on a sound footing. As others have said in the thread there are ways to play without risking pregnancy. Equally, if you were working all hours on short rations - hard to get pregnant in the first place.

 

[Cathbad]

One of the oldest reasons to have children was to have help on the farm. Self-defeating, of course, since more mouths to feed meant more work needed. which meant needing more children, which...

But farmers were not, for the most part, an educated people.

 

[Montero]

@Cathbad - yes, but not babies when you are breaking ground. Once the farm is producing, yes, you have children to have more labour, but if you are breaking ground that is a different story.
And again, I will repeat, all this depends on the characters. You don't have to be educated to work out mouths to food ratio. But if you have a degree of intelligence and self-control then it is far more likely to wait on babies until the farm is at a point where the woman's labour can be reduced. So it goes back to the OP and what sort of folks she is putting on her farm and whether it is breaking ground time or the nest is ready with plenty of stores.
Historically there are also plenty of accounts of father going ahead to get established and sending for existing family at a later date.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

On the other hand in some cultures the trick is to have as many babies as humanly possible while fertile to improve the odds of at least one of them surviving to adulthood.

Only having one child is investing your genetic eggs into a single basket.

 

[Overread]

Especially when you consider that without modern health care and sanitation and food supply; many people might not make it much past their 30s. So there's even more pressure to make sure you've had kids because life is far shorter. Furthermore for women there's more pressure to have kids during her prime; having them too early or late brings greater increased risk. So even if you're being sensible and planning things out; your level of medical and sanitation understanding/access is going to come into play too.

 

[caters]

Especially when you consider that without modern health care and sanitation and food supply; many people might not make it much past their 30s. So there's even more pressure to make sure you've had kids because life is far shorter. Furthermore for women there's more pressure to have kids during her prime; having them too early or late brings greater increased risk. So even if you're being sensible and planning things out; your level of medical and sanitation understanding/access is going to come into play too.

Well, I don't have to worry about that because they don't get more frail with old age and they have a super strong immune system that can handle the worst of viruses, as well as inactivate poison with anti-poison antibodies and digest even the strongest venom into amino acids.

 

[Overread]

What's the element of struggle in their daily life then?

 

[tinkerdan]

Are your Kepler Bb people humans who have traversed from Earth to reach this paradise or are they just humanoid like race that has nothing to do with our way of life. If so then you may be putting the cart before the horse by not explaining more about your world that you are building.

Displaced humans from Earth placed in your world that you have built on Kepler Bb may be one thing. However Humanoid creatures on your world Kepler Bb may be indigenous to Kepler Bb or not depending on the story. However what humans from Earth might do may not be what these humanoids would do and vise versa. Even if their biology is similar it would still have differences that might affect everything.

There's a lot of great advice up above as long as you have Humans displaced from Earth and left on Kepler Bb.

If you have some humanoid race that lives in these conditions then all bets are off because they will act as any of the usual natives of that planet have acted for years and only you have the answer to that.