Reference:DRC research notebooks/Pregnancy

From Guild of Archivists
Pregnancy
DRC notebook pregnancy.jpeg
Location Tokotah rooftop, Ae'gura
Author Tricia Lawson
Pregnancy

Now this is surprising. I can't say for sure but it seems fairly clear that D'ni women were only fertile for one D'ni "day" every two D'ni "months". In surface terms that's roughly only thirty hours every seventy-two days.

If true, it explains quite a few things. First, why there were so few children for a people who lived three hundred years and secondly the reason behind the rather large celebrations of pregnancy.

As far as I can tell these celebrations were usually limited to family members although were rather large. There was quite a bit of prayer to Yahvo as well as blessings from the family members. These "blessings" usually included vows to care for the pregnant woman and child through the coming months.

As I have mentioned in other areas, pregnant women were believed to be much more insightful and as a result, part of the pregnancy experience (although not part of the official ceremony) was using that insight to gain revelation from Yahvo. Though there was quite a bit of religious meditation expected of women during this time, I won't go into it here. However, this meditation was expected to primarily guide the women to her child's future and its purpose and was taken rather seriously.

While pregnancy within marriage was cause for great celebration, the same can not be said of pregnancy outside of marriage. As far as I can tell, any woman who became pregnant was expected to immediately marry and any child conceived out of wedlock was unable to join a Guild for its entire life. As well, no revelation was expected from such a mother. This was as equivalent [sic] a curse to a lower class woman as her child would not be able to attend a Guild of the upper class.

As far as I can see, gestation was a full year. Ten D'ni months - 290 D'ni days - equivalent to one Earth year. I have found no records of multiple births.