First, before I start on the subject of this thread, I would like to apologize if someone started a thread similar to this before. I searched through the forum and was not able to find one, so if there is one out there I really do apologize if I am starting a repeat thread.

That said, onto subject;

I was thinking this when I had written one of my stories that involves Kagome birthing a hanyou in modern times(though she does go back to the feudal era) and it just popped up again a few days ago and hasn't left my mind since.

In Inuyasha's time, demons are well known and at large. Though hanyou's are far and in between, they would be obvious as to how they were born with extra appendages or an exotic appearance.

However in modern time, demons are considered works of fiction(or depending where one may live-they can be considered the source of evil) so I imagine if someone went into the hospital and gave birth to something that had animal appendages or other exotic things there would be a lot of questions, and the child will probably be taken away for experimenting/kill for experimenting.

Which brings my question:

If Kagome was in modern time, and pregnant with a hanyou child for whatever reason, what would the best way to have her give birth without risking the child's life?

My thought was, she could do a home birth, and get one of those people that do home births(forgot their title)to help and make sure the baby was healthy.

However, she would still have to have someone who knows about demons help her with the birth. Which would be complicated to find-so I'm thinking she would need her mom to do it or something.

She could give birth at a hospital too, if she knew how to cover up whatever odd appearance the child may have. However I'm sure she would be to weak to do that right after giving birth so...

This brings me to my second(kind of connected to the first) question-Dokuga writers and readers, what would your opinion on this be? How would you write it out if she gave birth in modern time? Or how would you want to see it written out?

i've thought of this a few times, i always considered that her family would help her as much as possible, you can take classes on doing things home birth. I imagine her mom would actually do the delivery, while her brother would be that holding shoulder thing, i wouldn't put it past her jiji to throw salt so he'd hafta wait outside!

I also considered that lets say she was hiding it, she would try to do it alone, and maybe do a water birth, where she's in her tub, but that plunnie was a bit dark so i never went there fully with it...

sugar0o wrote:
i've thought of this a few times, i always considered that her family would help her as much as possible, you can take classes on doing things home birth. I imagine her mom would actually do the delivery, while her brother would be that holding shoulder thing, i wouldn't put it past her jiji to throw salt so he'd hafta wait outside!

I also considered that lets say she was hiding it, she would try to do it alone, and maybe do a water birth, where she's in her tub, but that plunnie was a bit dark so i never went there fully with it...

I was thinking that too, that her family could help with the birth(her mom seemed most suitable to actually do the delivery because I'm sure that no matter his age, delivering his sister's child would mentally scar poor Souta)

Hm interesting, that would be a good read(I think) unless it was extremely dark or gruesome(I personally can't stomach those kind of stories) but I do think her hiding it and doing the birth alone would be very interesting read C:

AmaViarra wrote:
sugar0o wrote:
I also considered that lets say she was hiding it, she would try to do it alone, and maybe do a water birth, where she's in her tub, but that plunnie was a bit dark so i never went there fully with it...Hm interesting, that would be a good read(I think) unless it was extremely dark or gruesome(I personally can't stomach those kind of stories) but I do think her hiding it and doing the birth alone would be very interesting read C:
If i remember correctly it was an AU plunnie where 17/18 year old senior in HS Kagome gets preggers, and manages to hide it the whole time b/c her family wasn't as close-nit as they are in the anime/manga, and not only was she ashamed of getting preggers but the father hadn't wanted it, i want to say it was Kouga, Naraku or Inuyasha, (my usual jerks in fics like this) and then she left the kid at a hospital, basically gives it up.

I wanted to say i had Souta find out right after it happened b/c he's the little brother and super observant...But the kid ends up being Rin, and being adopted by Sess for some reason, and 6 years down the road a college grad Kagome ends up being Sess' Personal Asst... you can kinda see where it went from here.

Honestly, i think it was during the time frame when i was fine with writing fic where Rin and Shippo were their kids. Now though these times of fics kinda make me a little b/c it's been done so much. I never wrote it, if anyone wants the idea that's fine by me.

Well we can assume from the canon that Kags can bear a hanyou child to term, give birth, and have a healthy baby (i.e. since Izayoi had Inuyasha). However I wouldn't really draw similarities between a hanyou baby, and a human baby, simply for the differences in species, and the uncertainties. A hanyou child isn't a human child, they have animalistic features, animal ears, and claws where humans have blunt, round nails. The gestation period for humans of nine-months, could either be significantly shorter for a hanyou child, or longer, I'd take creative license, and likely extend the pregnancy beyond normal by either a few weeks, or a month, but nothing much longer.

Since Inuyasha obviously has heightened senses, and it's natural for animals mothers to bond with their babies when first born (cats, and dogs especially). I'd probably have Kagome either cleaning the baby herself to start off the bonding process, or being assisted by her mother, and likely a youkai midwife, probably in Sesshy's case either his mother, or if not her, another trusted female relative familiar with youkai births, and Kagome.

I'll be tackling this subject in the next chapter of a ficlet soon too. >.< When I get around to figuring the chapter out. I think it's open to interpretation, but for me I wouldn't be putting human perceptions onto a hanyou baby, or child, since they're only half like us, and half not, so there'll be plenty of unknowns, and differences too.

At least that's what I think.

~ Pyre

@sugar0o(cause I'm to lazy to do the quote thing)

Hm, it sounds really interesting and definitely a story that could pull on one's heart strings. That being said, I think a story like that could only be written by certain writers.(If that makes any sense) I know I would never be able to pull it off

Thanks for sharing it(and your opinion on the matter) C:

I've given this one a lot of thought, too. If Kagome had access to demons or demon lore that could help her with the process it would be a completely different can of worms, but working under the assumption that she has only the help of her family and those humans who knew about her time traveling, her options become much more restricted. She could go with at home birth using either her mother or a midwife, but I've always preferred a different approach.

For one, like Jinenji's mother said, "Some of 'em is born pretty, some of 'em ain't." Kagome wouldn't know if her child would be horribly deformed like Jinenji, or just have strange growths like InuYasha. Maybe it would be safe for her to have her pup in a hospitol. She could find out before hand with just an ultra-sound (though you could say the pup reacted badly to the ultrasound for some reason, thus making it impossible).

Also, if there were only Inu ears or a Koga tail, there are already a bunch of birth defects she could claim her pup had to explain away all the differences. The doctors would be required to make sure the pup was completely healthy and the defects did not adversely affect it, but they would have no right to take it away from Kagome unless they felt she was endangering the pups life.

Not to mention, it's a demon birth and she would have no idea if the pup would be exceptionally large or if there would be any other complications because of its heritage. Even the normal complications could arise from childbirth that a midwife and most definitely her mother would be incapable of handling. Having a real doctor on hand would be a definite plus, and if anyone was overly suspicious she could just take her baby after she'd had some time to rest and vamoose. There are all sorts of options to keep from being noticed and just disappear.

The idea I'd always wanted to try out, though, was to have her find and befriend a doctor whom she knew she could trust completely. He could just be some local doctor she found or maybe a parent of one of her friends (after all, Hojo's always giving her those medical things, one of his parents could be a doctor). She could tell the doctor everything he needed to know, and use the opportunity to study the pup's growth or a money incentive, or even just the good will of the doctor, to convince them to help her. Then he would be aware of all the possibilities the child birth and be prepared for them. That would also give her someone to take her pup to as he or she grew up without having to cover up anything strange, like fast healing or seriously above average capabilities. There would be the added tension of never knowing if the doctor was going to turn on her to give the plot something to develop.

I always come up with ideas for things I'd like to happen in stories, but never actual plot to support them. But if anybody actually used that idea in a fanfic I'd love them forever

I think I remember reading a fic somewhere that Kagome found a doctor that WAS a demon...or a hanyou...in disguise, who helped her (although I can't recall if it was for child-birth). Many fics read that there are still demons in the modern era, although disguised, so that seems like the most logical solution to me.

In Embrace the Silence by Trouble_In_Shangri_La, she has a quasi-friend who is a doctor...who it turns out is a descendant of (Spoiler alert) Onigumo and knows a bit about the feudal era (He was not a hanyou, just a human). This also had nothing to do with having a baby, but he was a doctor!

I never really gave the subject too much thought myself, since I've never written a fic with this scenario, but the two above seem plausible to me. Others that could maybe work:

1. She uses a Doula who is a long-time family friend, or a doula with miko powers.
2. Sesshomaru helps her (or any demon who survived from the past)
3. She could find a doctor who maybe frequents a museum she goes to which specializes in feudal era antiques or something.
4. She could do a home birth that her mother, Souta and grandfather help with.
5. This one's a long shot, but, she could do something ridiculous like call one of those magazine places that always have stories of aliens and elvis sightings and whatnot, and tell them to come to the birthing. Then after the paper writes up the article (which would have to include witness testimony from the drs./nurses), the world thinks it's a big fake and the people who actually witnessed the birth are discredited due to the paper, so either no one believes she actually has a hanyou child, or she has time to recover from the birth and use her miko powers to disguise the child (providing proof to anyone afterwards that of course her child is a 'normal' human). Or something. Sorry, that got a little out of hand, lol!

I've done so previously, in my very first fic, having a demon doctor help with the child birth. Since I think it's logical that there are at least few who have survived to the modern era.

I'll probably use the same option again when I need it next, because it's the most convenient, in my opinion.

But if there would be no demon (doctor) available, I'd vote home birth. :3

Probably home birth with the assistance of a midwife. Perhaps one familiar with demons or hanyou?

Surprisingly enough, it's actually really common in Japan for women to leave their husbands/partners before giving birth to return to their family home where they grew up.

Their family helps them through the birth and helps them take care of the baby for the first few months. After about 3 months (sometimes shorter, sometimes longer) she moves back in with her husband.

I thought this was strange when I first heard it here, but several of my coworkers or their wives have done this and it is apparently completely normal and expected.

I'm assuming that in your thought process Youkai aren't in some kind of 'Illuminati' type society behind the scenes. (Because that's my answer to everything: Secret organizations, FTW!)
However, being a highschooler doesn't really bring in dough enough to buy off the hospital staff; so my answer to this: Hippie Midwife.
No really. Get a flower child, mother goddess, the world is wonderful sing with the trees, super happy and chill, hippie midwife. Either that or go to India where they'll proclaim your child as an emissary of the gods. (like that little girl with two faces on youtube)
I can't see anyone being more o.k. with a kid popping out with fuzzy dog ears and or tail.

So I don't spam the thread, I will just post my replies to all you in this one response C:

@Pyreite - I agree completely, there will definitely be a giant difference between a human baby and a hanyou baby. In birth and for the time the pregnancy lasts.

Interesting thoughts on the matter, you make a lot of good points, I'm curious to see how you will write it out in your story, good luck~

@Lady Shikibu-Mm, I agree. Kagome having the assistance of demons in modern time will make the difficulty of her giving birth in modern time much easier. Very true, no one knows what a hanyou will look like-like mutts, there is no guarantee. Interesting thoughts and very interesting idea!

@Tiegrsi -Yep, the demons in modern era(mainly in disguise) is usually the easiest solution for hanyou birth. Interesting ideas C:

@Chie -It would be logical that some demons survived, the problem would be Kagome being able to find them before she gives birth. Which I believe may be difficult but possible. C:

@Langus- Really? Hm, interesting. I've honestly never heard of that before-thank you for the information C:

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-laughs- alright I'm lazy now. I'll just say, that home birth seems to be the best option. However Ashes, a midwife doesn't automatically mean hippie. How I wrote in the scene in my story was that Kagome's mother had previously been a midwife's assistant so she knew how to deliver a child and how to care for it afterword.

However in my story Kagome had no clue she was pregnant when she gave birth, so they had no time to prepare. The birthing scene wasn't that descriptive, I may add more detail when I re-write it. Thank you to all of those who have answered! Very interesting views on the matter, most of the answers made me think C:

I would say that before the birth Kagome would try to learn how to mask demonic or spiritual aura as well as some kind of glamour spell so that she could hide the outer appearance of her child. I'm assuming this is happening in our modern times, so, I would also say that she and her family would try to do as much research of old folk lore as possible to help out.

As for what the hanyou would look like - going from Swords of an Honorable Ruler, they look more humanoid. Or, at least, Inuyasha did. Remember, hanyous don't have a 'beast/true form' - only full blooded Daiyoukai have the power to freely switch from their demonic form and their more humanoid form.

@AmaViarra: Ah, no I totally get that. Most midwives are level headed medical professionals that have an RN degree. (Actually I'm trying to find a midwife to apprentice to in my area) It was just an idea that came to me since I've been taking herbalism classes with some *cough* interesting *cough* people. That's all. Sorry it came across incorrectly.