Weird 40K Lore Question - Maternity Leave in the Imperium...

[StraightSilver]

OK, so this is a weird one but it's related to the Black Library Horror submissions.

I have an idea for a story but the main element of the story (without giving anything away) involves a single mother raising a child.

So my question is - how does this work in the context of the Imperium?

I am guessing procreation is actively encouraged but also that working full time is also a big deal.

So what measures in place would there be for somebody taking time off to raise a newborn baby?

It's kind of critical to the story that the mother is initially in a small hab on her own raising a newborn, with occasional visits from friends and family, but I'm wondering how single mothers would be viewed as well. I guess this is probably very common?

[MARK0SIAN]

If you can, I would advise reading the first book in the Ravenor series. It doesn’t address your question directly but it gives a really good insight into life in the habs of a hive city for poorer residents. I think it would go some way to addressing what you’re trying to find out.

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Hmm, interesting question.... I have no idea! :)

 

But, if I were to guess, I’d say that in an almost infinitely large imperium (seriously, how many planets, solar systems and colonies are there within the imperium?) there should be a number of different ways to handle that, especially given the feudal and semi-independent status of individual member worlds.

 

This should mean that if your story requires giving the parent(s) time off to raise children, there’s a planet somewhere Out there that allows it.

[NovemberIX]

At the risk of being cliche, the imperium is vast and wide, full of planets of splendor and want, and thus no “one way” to look at it. It comes down to the context of the planet. Is she a hiver with a “tithed” pregnancy, or an agri-worlder who fooled about, a war widow raising the next soldier for the guard, or something else entirely on a forge world? Long and short, as long as your characters praise the Big E, they’ll be fine for the setting.

[Casual Heresy]

‘Bloodlines’, the new Warhammer Crime novel is a good source for ideas about ‘domestic’ 40k. Like MARK0SIAN’s suggestion it won’t answer your question directly but the main character is a father and one of the lower class citizens he interviews near the end could give some ideas.

[StraightSilver]

Ah cool, thanks guys. I've read all the Eisenhorn/Ravenor books but haven't read any of the Warhammer crime stuff yet so should definitely give it a read.

 

Some great suggestions though. :)

[Gederas]

Iirc, the Ciaphas Cain novels touch upon it, with Cain noting he has a lot of paperwork to fill out because of the now-mixed-gender Valhallan 597th's fraternizing (read: woopsie babies) and I think he mentions maternity leave in one of the novels.

 

So at least in one (albeit a lot less serious) Imperial Guard series, the Guard does have maternity leave.

[Brother Tyler]

One of the fun things about the Imperium is that it's not a monolithic/homogenous institution. Different worlds and organizations work in different ways. One world/organization might not have maternity leave. Another might.

 

So do whatever works for your story.

[ThePenitentOne]

Diversity, as mentioned.

 

But in the way of dystopian dark future, I see cold servitors monitoring coffin hotels of infants; education, even for the extremely young, is akin to the reprogramming that takes place in A Clockwork Orange- twelve hour days, seven days per week- same as the workers.

[Beta galactosidase]

I think the most important concept is that for the overwhelming majority of human societies throughout history, a person living in a private apartment and raising a child by themselves does not happen, at all.

 

If there is something in the real world close to industrial habs in the imperium, it’s high rise public housing apartments in the US. In these cases while there are individual apartments with some single women raising kids, but couples in the majority more often than is shown on tv cop dramas, it’s usually the case that the parents go to work and when the kids aren’t in school there is an older person in the building who keeps an eye on the kids and tells them to have dinner and do their homework, for a fee.

 

There’s a further complication. If there is a single mother, then there’s a good chance their kids live most of the time with another relative.

 

I think if you just write about the lonely struggles of a single mother in an apartment with only her child, it will seem kind of trite as well as not realistic.

[Azekai]

I think the most important concept is that for the overwhelming majority of human societies throughout history, a person living in a private apartment and raising a child by themselves does not happen, at all.

 

If there is something in the real world close to industrial habs in the imperium, it’s high rise public housing apartments in the US. In these cases while there are individual apartments with some single women raising kids, but couples in the majority more often than is shown on tv cop dramas, it’s usually the case that the parents go to work and when the kids aren’t in school there is an older person in the building who keeps an eye on the kids and tells them to have dinner and do their homework, for a fee...

 

Sounds like a job for... Nanny Servitors!

 

“EAT YOUR RECONSITUTED GRUEL, _insert name.”

[Indefragable]

The first mental image that comes to mind is the poor mother working the line in a factory with her infant strapped to her back, her co-workers desperately trying to cover her for a few minutes so she can nurse him. 

[Beta galactosidase]

The first mental image that comes to mind is the poor mother working the line in a factory with her infant strapped to her back, her co-workers desperately trying to cover her for a few minutes so she can nurse him. 

- a few minutes

- nursing

 

this makes my nipples hurt so bad just thinking about it, in case anyone didn't notice how absolutely awful it would be

[Scribe]

Depends on what the story needs, but unless you are well off, mat leave isn't a thing I can envision in a hive city.

 

Get back to work citizen, the servitor will feed your child.

[StraightSilver]

Cheers everybody.

 

One of the aspects of the story is people in the hab block helping look after the baby, which is where some of the horror aspects come into the story. :)

[Blood Angel Scout]

Cheers everybody.

 

One of the aspects of the story is people in the hab block helping look after the baby, which is where some of the horror aspects come into the story. :)

Sounds a bit too close to the story of Yoncy and Dalin throughout the Ghosts series.

 

Edit-names.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Blood Angel Scout

[plastic_slug]

Abnett's Titanicus also has a look at a hive city dwelling couple who were basically hoping to get permission to have a child someday. So I guess there it was no kids unless the authorities say so. Then she got called up into the PDF, and he went kind of nuts while she was away....

[Raven1]

That's a good question and the best answer is also probably the worst answer. It depends.

 

It could be like Starship Troopers (movie) wherein you must be a citizen in order to have a child.

 

However given the need for bodies in the guard, pdf, workshops etc etc. I would imagine its more of duty to have children and an expectation. Two things here come to mind early American which was mostly agrarian most families had a lot of children because the extra help was needed on the farm and the higher mortality rates meant fewer children made it to adulthood.

 

The other would be the Heroic Mother award from communist Albania. Women who had 10 more children were literally considered heroes of the revolution. I can see it being that way as well. Children are needed because adults are needed and so women having children is a duty, an honor, worthy of respect and recognition by the local government.

 

 

So like a hive world which is overcrowded and full of slums, maybe pregnancy is discouraged or high regulated and unauthorized pregnancy punished. An agri-world or a military world like Cadia. The more hands the better and pregnancy is encouraged, honored, and recognized.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Raven1

[Cpt.Danjou]

This question came up recently when I wrote the fluff about my company. The ships that the Imperium have, are so large they could be considered small cities, people must die and get born all the time, of old age, accidents and decease, especially if they are out on longer trips. So I I thought some ships must have medical areas who can take care of newborns and dying. Older siblings taking care of the toddlers till they get the age to become a part of the crew, doing easier shores. Like runners, cleaners etc. When they grow up they get assigned specific tasks and join as full crew members, filling in the spots for the dead and lost. A child on a ship probably starts to work as early as the age of 5. Even old and frail crew members can take care of the young, and show them the ropes on a ship, just like in villages in pre-industrial society did, and is still done in some countries and cultures.

Some of the ships might have crew members who belongs to families who have been part of the ship for centuries even millennia, creating special societies and cultures. I think I read somewhere that some of the crew on the Space wolves void-ships once were descended from the seafarers of Fenris. Not all crews are slaves or pressed-ganged. 

 

On a hive world things might be different, from a Feral world, on a Feral wold the mortality rate is probably so high that many children are born, but sadly die very young. On a Cardinal world the birth of a child might be seen as something very bad, or maybe a miracle. Who knows the imperium is a strange place. A governor, on an "ordinary" world, probably want that every woman give birth to average three children who survive to the teens. One for the Adeptus Militarium and two for keeping the planet in a steady and healthy population.How they are cared for is probably as different as there are planets. Remember that maternity leave is a modern invention. If you had a child on a farm or was a factory worker during the early 20th century, before WW 2, you did not have many days to rest if any.  

 

Just my two cents.

 

Cpt. Danjou

[Lord_Caerolion]

Even within planets it'd vary drastically, just look at Earth. For a more in-universe example, the way the Clan Houses work in Necromunda are drastically different from each other, who are all different again from the Noble Houses, the Guilders, and the general Underhive population. Goliaths have a life-expectancy of about 9 years, give or take, and a lot of their reproduction is done artificially, with "Natborns" being treasured, but they don't exactly have a nurturing culture at all.

[Ascanius]

Worst option for the worst worlds: servitor wet nurses.

 

You don't have to ever have been pregnant to induce lactation, so it's not difficult to imagine some worlds setting up infant creches with servitors who feed them on a set rotation, 24 hours a day, forever.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Damn you, Ascanius, those are mental images I never needed to have in my head...

[Scribe]

LOL that's grim.

[Bryan Blaire]

LOL that's grim.

And so totally perfect for the Imperium.

 

Honestly something similar is how I always imagined child rearing occurred with in most of the Imperial hives and AdMech run manufactorum areas/Hive Worlds.