by Lisa Fleishman and Shannon W. Hennessy (Werewolf: The Apocalypse | The Face of Rage | Columns)
The room of the small cabin stank of sweat and frayed nerves. Mart felt the agony of labor rip through her as howls of the enemy echoed through the night, accentuating her vulnerability. The mother to be was accompanied by two of her kin. The first was the father of her child. She had long ago agreed to let him watch the birth as a kindness to him for breeding with her. She now wished that she would have never let him attend as the sounds of battle grew closer to the caern. The second was her nurse, a woman who had help to birth many babies in her time.
"It’s alright," the father murmured as he wiped a bead of sweat from Mart’s forehead, "you’re doing great." She saw him nervously look at the door that was barred shut against intruders. For a moment, she hated him. She hated his inability to protect her as her pack mates were striving to do. He was worthless to her. Mart growled at him.
"C’mon Hon," her nurse soothed, "concentrate on this." The midwife again checked the progress of the baby.
"I can’t fucking forget about this!" Mart replied viciously as her body convulsed in pain.
"You’re almost there," the nurse replied in the same calming voice. Mart marveled that even the baby seemed to understand the need for urgency. Mart could hear the sounds of battle drawing nearer. They were coming for her baby. Fear of losing the child that she had sought for so long almost paralyzed her even as her nurse coaxed her to breathe and focus. The pain was overwhelming, and Mart almost wished that she were dead. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she gasped for breath.
"It’s time, Mart," the nurse nodded.
Shrieks filled the cabin matching the screams of battle outside.
Cutting through all of the noise came the small wail of new life.
Silence fell over the caern for a moment. Mother and father stared in amazement at their new child. Mart’s tears of pain changed to joy as she kissed her babe for the first time.
The battle outside started anew as both sides realized that the child had been born. The nurse quickly swaddled the child.
"Get them out of here," the father ordered the midwife as he reached for a weapon.
"She can’t travel now, for Christ’s sake," the nurse argued.
The battle outside began to reach a fevered pitch.
"Then carry them, or whatever you have to do!" he screamed.
Mart’s voice cut through the argument. "You take the baby," she said to the father. "You take him away from here so that they can’t have him." Pain of a different kind covered her face as she realized that the chances of the child escaping the enemy were nil.
"Get the baby," he gestured to the nurse, " I’ll get her." The front door of the cabin began to give as the enemy tried to force their way through it.
"Damn it, Jared!" Mart screamed, " I can’t make it!"
The father turned and gave her a look so full of rage that she could have sworn that he was a Garou himself.
"Don’t you ever give up on our son," he whispered. He pulled Mart out of bed as the nurse took the baby. They made their way to the back door as the front door exploded in. The trio began to flee.
Mart could feel her anger at being denied a quiet moment with her child, at the pain that she was experiencing, and at the enemy that had the audacity to attack her home. She lashed out at those who sought her child. Never had a Garou fought such a vicious battle. One after the other her enemies came, first striking down the father, and then the nurse to get to their prize. The panicked shrieks of the baby who had been dropped to the ground served to fuel Mart’s rage.
Mart’s vision cleared, and all around her was carnage. She could hear the mewling of her child, and picked him up to try to soothe him. She felt numbed by what had happened. For a long moment she looked around in disbelief. In the distance she heard another call of her enemy as they began the hunt again. Mart forced her exhausted body to run. Mart would not allow them to take the only thing that she had to live for, and so she struggled on.
One of the only respites enjoyed by the active duty soldiers of Gaia’s eternal war against destruction, consumption and corruption is the occasional birth of a new Garou cub to proud, beaming parents. For a brief moment as both mother and father hold the newborn cub for the first time, there is a sense of nothing but triumph; for the parents as well as for the Garou Nation as a whole.
The road to birth for Garou families is not always an easy one. Recent years have seen a marked increase in crimes committed against the newborn Garou infants by the enemies of their parents. These crimes range from kidnapping to outright murder due to neglect or malice in some cases, especially in public hospitals and private birthing hospices involved with Magadon’s pharmaceutical or HMO primary care provider networks in any way, shape or form.
Fewer and fewer Garou births occur in these final days as Apocalypse approaches. Every single Garou cub born, regardless of breed, is a valuable asset to the Garou Nation as a whole and carry within each one of them a small bit of the one resource the Garou as a people seem to have exhausted during the course of their war against a myriad of enemies: Hope.
With the increased risk presented by normally accepted means of child birthing, the Garou Nation have, across the board for the most part, turned again to the loving arms of their Mother and began trusting once again in the tried and true methods.
Midwifery
Secondary Skill
Midwife Mid"wife`, n.; pl. {Midwives}. [OE. midwif, fr. AS. mid with (akin to Gr. ?) + ? woman, wife. Properly, the woman or wife who is attendant upon a woman in childbirth. See {Meta-}, and {Wife}.] A woman who assists other women in childbirth; a female practitioner of the obstetric art.
This skill, although considered a misnomer and sexist by its many male practitioners among Garou Kinfolk, allows for the assistance in and actual delivery of infants and special physical and spiritual care of expectant and post-partem mothers. Where the Garou and their Kinfolk are concerned, however, this Path also encompasses many aspects of animal husbandry where Lupine cousins in need of assistance while in labor might require them. Although some complications during childbirth can exceed the scope of even the most trained and accomplished Midwife, the risk of infant mortality and life threatening scenarios which might befall an exhausted mother decrease drastically when and where Midwives are involved in the birthing of children, and in this case, especially Garou children. It should be noted that despite their overwhelming reputations as "warrior tribes," the Black Furies and Red Talons boast Midwives that are renowned throughout the Nations as some of the most talented and astute practitioners of the skill.
Midwifery, as a practice, nearly died due to extermination during the Inquisition in Europe and again in the early settlement of Puritan North America when witch-hunting seemed akin to a sport for a time. Due to the fact that Midwifery was based largely on superstition, common practices included sympathetic magic (such as removing the hairpins from the patient's coiffure, opening all the doors and drawers and cabinets, and unstopping every bottle, jar, and jug, etc.) that led, in darker times, to misunderstanding and religious bigotry which was punishable by many means of torture, death or both. However, the midwife knew the most about female health -- both from practical experience and medical knowledge, and Midwives were apparently much prized by the towns (and by proxy, Caerns and Septs) that realized their worth. When the numbers of practicing Midwives dwindled down so low that the skill itself was in jeopardy of being lost to the ignorance of the oppressors of the age, men were brought into the practice of the craft and taught the finer points of the skill so that it might flourish once again where enlightened science so often fails.
A Midwife understands a woman’s body before, during, and after birth. You use age-old knowledge rather than modern technology to help lessen the aches and pains, and in some cases, the associated mental, emotional and physical traumas of pregnancy and delivery.
Midwifery may also act as a specialty of both the Occult and Medicine Knowledges.
l Novice: You can help ease the minor aches and pains of pregnancy and assist in a normal delivery.
ll Practiced: You know how to make salves and ointments that lessen morning sickness and migraines. You have helped several women successfully deliver.
lll Competent: You understand the hormonal changes that occur in a pregnant woman and how to ease their symptoms. You have assisted in difficult labors and deliveries.
llll Expert: You have seen the birth of many children and know how to keep a woman as focused and comfortable as possible during pregnancy and delivery.
lllll Master: You know advanced techniques of pain control and can assist in the most problematic of pregnancies and deliveries, including performing a cesarean if necessary.
Possessed by: Nurses, Home heath care experts, Homeopathic enthusiasts, Paramedics.
Specialties: Pain alleviation, Focus Techniques, Delivery, Post Pregnancy care.
Fetishes
Umbral Womb
Level 3, Gnosis 5
When a Garou woman becomes pregnant she normally informs the Elders of the Pack/Sept/Caern of this issue, who then, depending on the mother’s station within the Pack/Sept/Caern create this fetish using items chosen by the expectant Garou mother, including a drop of her own amniotic fluid as well as a small amount of her own blood. The fetish is then bound with a Protection, Guardian or Wolf Spirit and is carried by the mother across the Umbra to a Tribal location normally guarded by War and Ancestor Spirits, usually referred to as the Nursery.
When the mother is, if at all, forced or pressed into combat that requires her to shift to any form other than her Breed Form, the placenta inside of her body shifts into the Umbral Womb upon a successful Gnosis roll (only one success is required), where it exists in an undisturbed state of stasis until the mother shifts BACK to her Breed Form. In order for the placenta of the unborn child or cubs to re-enter the mother's physical body, she must spend 1 Pt. of Gnosis and make a Stamina+Survival roll at a difficulty of her current Permanent Gnosis (no less than 3). Only one success is required... but it should be noted that the mother must have AT LEAST 4 HLs in order to call the placenta from across the Umbra, for the benefit and well being of both the Mother and the unborn baby/cub.
In the event that the mother is slain in combat while the placenta rests safely in the Umbra, one of two things normally happens - either the placenta is kept in stasis in the Umbra until a surrogate Kinfolk or Garou mother is chosen by the Pack/Sept/Caern to carry the placenta to term (biological rejection *IS* an issue with this method).
