Why do I do this to myself?

[melayneseahawk]

So, the problem with deciding to have a character get pregnant in a story that lasts many months? At some point, she has to actually have the baby. Gah.

I don't know how to write someone giving birth, from any perspective.

I'm pretty sure I can't just say "oh, she had the baby!" at some point.

And then, of course, this leaves me with the fact that I have a baby on a secret military base hidden on an alien planet.

*headdesk repeatedly*

Any thoughts? Anyone? Bueller?

Comments

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

Would abortion be a legit option for the character? Secret military base hidden on an alien planet doesn't sound like a viable place for raising a child; I seem to recall that your setup centers around Everything Goes To Shit and this is Crisis Mode Seriously.

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

Crisis mode, certainly, but the baby is all that the woman has of her husband, since he's on Earth and possibly in trouble if the gov't decides to punish the families of the renegades. So, I'm not sure abortion would be in-character.

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

Weeelllll... If you wanna do some research and kind of set your mood, the book What to Expect when You're Expecting has a couple of pages on what to do if you're about to have your baby either alone or isolated with only a few non-professional helpers. Though on a base, one presumes there would be a doctor to assist. Also, What to Expect can give you lots of gruesome details about being preggers. When I was pregnant with AG33, I loved scaring the young, single, non-pregnant women with the information I was learning.

My two cents - having the baby is an expected/hoped for/dreaded event that you have known was coming for months. It's sort of scheduled, but it's not, so you're kind of on edge at the end, waiting to find out *exactly* when. Then there's a bunch of social pressure about whether to try to treat it as a medical event, with lots of anesthesia, or as some kind of life event, with no anesthesia, so it's got a motherly layer of guilt and worry thrown in that your average hernia surgery does not. But also, if you go in healthy and have a doctor with you, it's a serious medical event, but probably not life-threatening, so you are sort of afraid of the event, but not really so worried about *surviving* the event. In that respect, I was more afraid of the general anesthesia I had for my surgery than I was of going to the hospital to have my kids. And assuming you *want* this baby, it's pretty exciting to know that at the end of the event, no matter how painful, exhausting and frightening, you get to have your baby afterwards and get started on all the motherhood things you have been looking forward to. Of course, there's worry there, too, about whether the baby will be OK, and then immense relief (in my case) to find out that yes, the baby is OK!

So twist that all up around a mom who is separated from her husband, bringing the child into the world in a strange, isolated environment! Whoo hoo! I think you can do that!

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

But this is a minor character! Minor, minor plot point! And then what the hell do I do with the baby afterwards?

[indywind]

put it in a sling and take everywhere that there is not actually gunfire or desperate secrecy? just like people did in the olden days and some still do?

More in email.

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say burp it, but I see indywind got here first! :D

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

You are so helpful.

[akumahu.livejournal.com]

Sometimes just the simple... she had a baby is appropriate. Unless of course the whole plot revolves around the baby.

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

The baby, and the pregnant character, are way minor. I have to address them in some way, but that's it. I just haven't decided to what degree yet.