Child birth and rearing
Posted: 06 Jun 2017 18:23
I've thought about this off and on recently; aren't you glad I'm sharing?
Good ole Manda'yaim strikes me as a rather poor planet: it's described as mostly rural with lots of farmers, there seems to be one major corporation and it's going to have more factory workers than office workers, and bounty hunting and mercenary work are high risk, high cost (what with gear and ammo and all) jobs that aren't necessarily steady. All this to say that I doubt Mandalore has too many OB/GYNs (or doctors of any kind), especially outside of the few major cities, and field medicine doesn't exactly translate to Labour and Delivery.
I think most babies are delivered by the family/friends/neighbours who know the most about having babies. If anything goes wrong somebody goes for a doctor, but mostly it's experience and nature. Those same family members/ friends/ neighbours can stick around right after the birth and help out until the mother is back on her feet (and, you know, have an excuse to be around a new baby).
On the same note with the lack of doctors, it's my personal headcanon that there's a fairly decent mortality rate among children and infants. When people are tiny and fargile it's very easy for things to go wrong, especially if the go to solutions are mostly folk medicine. As such, people begin counting children's ages when they reach about six standard years old (this bumps the terrifyingly low age of majority for Mando'ade from 13 to 19 standard years, which is far more reasonable imho, considering brain development) (it also makes Canderous around 69 years old in KOTOR, if anyone's counting).
Mandalorian parenting seems like a combination of highly affectionate and hands-off; children are loved but allowed to make their own mistakes and learn from it. It seems like a community effort to raise children. Children aren't viewed as a barrier to work but as a respectable form of work; they aren't scheduled in to people's lives, but included in every part.
Sorry for the long post and any stupid spelling mistakes, for I typed this on a cell phone. Your opinions are welcome.
Good ole Manda'yaim strikes me as a rather poor planet: it's described as mostly rural with lots of farmers, there seems to be one major corporation and it's going to have more factory workers than office workers, and bounty hunting and mercenary work are high risk, high cost (what with gear and ammo and all) jobs that aren't necessarily steady. All this to say that I doubt Mandalore has too many OB/GYNs (or doctors of any kind), especially outside of the few major cities, and field medicine doesn't exactly translate to Labour and Delivery.
I think most babies are delivered by the family/friends/neighbours who know the most about having babies. If anything goes wrong somebody goes for a doctor, but mostly it's experience and nature. Those same family members/ friends/ neighbours can stick around right after the birth and help out until the mother is back on her feet (and, you know, have an excuse to be around a new baby).
On the same note with the lack of doctors, it's my personal headcanon that there's a fairly decent mortality rate among children and infants. When people are tiny and fargile it's very easy for things to go wrong, especially if the go to solutions are mostly folk medicine. As such, people begin counting children's ages when they reach about six standard years old (this bumps the terrifyingly low age of majority for Mando'ade from 13 to 19 standard years, which is far more reasonable imho, considering brain development) (it also makes Canderous around 69 years old in KOTOR, if anyone's counting).
Mandalorian parenting seems like a combination of highly affectionate and hands-off; children are loved but allowed to make their own mistakes and learn from it. It seems like a community effort to raise children. Children aren't viewed as a barrier to work but as a respectable form of work; they aren't scheduled in to people's lives, but included in every part.
Sorry for the long post and any stupid spelling mistakes, for I typed this on a cell phone. Your opinions are welcome.