Why yokai's pregnancies are a shorter then human'spirit ones? Yokais are most of the time related to some kind of animals and while it's possible that the pregnancy resemble that of the animal, since they lived longer than humans, should not the babies take more time to develop? I mean like 2 years or more, since yokais live for centuries it should not be that long for them.

Actually, there are some authors that write youkai pregnancies last for two years. One story, I cannot remember the title, wrote that the female youkai is pregnant but doesn't have her belly swell until the baby is born.
I think it depends on the author and how he/she explains the process.

I'm not quite sure why some stories have short pregnancy stages...but perhaps just like how Youkai's can heal quickly...it makes sense that they can develop at a much faster pace.

Have no idea, but it's probably up to the author.

I would simply say that a youkai female would probably stay in one form while she was pregnant. Either she stays in her natural beast form or in her humanoid one. I doubt it would be healthy for a developing baby in utero to be forced to interchange between animal and human forms before they're even born. The mother might have troubles too, especially in the size of the baby if she tries to shape-shift while pregnant.

Ouch.

Plus I think youkai are an echelon above ordinary animals. They're all magic and stuff so I can't see them having close kin-ties and or resemblances in their gestational cycles with their animal cousins.

Saying that it is entirely possible that youkai pregnancies could vary if the mother is in either of her natural forms. She might have a longer pregnancy in her human form or a shorter one in her beast form or vice-versa. Pure speculation and entirely up to an author if they're brave enough to tackle that kind of complexity.

More power to them.

~ Pyre

P.S: You could always ask Sesshy, though, beware that he might think you're volunteering to have his puppies.

I agree with Pyre on having to choose one form and another, and there maybe being differences between the two. I kinda like to think they would revert to the natural form for the pregnancy and infancy.

I have given youkai a shorter pregnancy in my fic, mostly to serve as a reminder that no matter how they look, youkai are not human. Also I considered the differences between physical and mental development. If wanted, you could even add the magic/power dimension to that. Not all of these have to take place in the womb.

Also, from an evolutionary stand point, long pregnancies resulting in long childhoods due to a slower pace of development don't sound all too good. I mean sure, youkai don't have that many natural predators save for other youkai, but having the mother and the pup be in a vulnerable state for so long just doesn't sound like a good idea to me. ^^;

Another thing to potentially consider, if you do like the animal analogy, is that different species of youkai would have different pregnancy times. The lesser youkai - daiyoukai dynamic is one to consider as well, if you are so inclined that much of the mental and magic/power development happens in the womb, then perhaps powerful babies would need more (or less?) time in their mothers bellies.

Really, the possibilities are endless for the writers.

I can understand that some people write the pregnancy shorter than human one. Someone wrote in his/her story that youkai age faster than normal till they are capable of taking care of themselves. All about survival. And of course the animal point of view; dogs 'pregnancy' only lasts about two months.

I also understand the explanation where the pregnancy is longer, because in this case there is the whole youkai age slower and live longer point of view, but it could be explained also that the 'pup'/baby will depend on its parents protection so it can grow and develop safely and without hurry.

So I think both are very reasonable choices and the author just chooses the one that will support the story the most.

But I have a question about the comment that youkai should stay on either their youkai for or their human form trough pregnancy. I agree of course and won't explain this because the two before me explained this beautifully. But the question; is there even a fic out there where the youkai woman that is pregnant stays in her youkai form through her pregnancy?

Laurel K. Hamilton in her Anita Blake series has were-animals actually lose the baby if they shape shift while pregnant because the fetus cannot handle the transition and shifting of bodily organs so I've always ruled by that logic. It makes sense that a demon has to stay in one form or the other.

Personally, I like the idea of demons being born in their true forms. It makes the idea more realistic - demons are more primal and animal. So I have my demons born in their true forms.

As for the gestation period, I rule by if they are in humanoid form then the gestation period will be longer then in their true forms but shorter than a humans because they are in a sense, still animals. And half-demon pregnancies are shorter then a humans but longer than a humanoid demons.

So my gestation periods are usually:

Dog-Demons in True Form: 2-3 Months
Dog-Demons in Humanoid Form: 3-5 Months
Half-dog-Demon Babies: 6-7 Months

I think it's also depending on the type of demon. Some pregnancies are long or short depending on the type of creature but generally we are talking about dog-demons in this fandom.

Typically in nature the rule is more complex = longer gestation, bigger brain = longer childhood. This is basically because the more complicated something is, the longer it takes to make, and generally those huge heads would be impossible to actually birth so they have to develop after birth, ergo long childhood phase. If youkai were real, I think going by this logic they'd have long pregnancies and long childhoods, getting shorter the farther down the food chain you go. Considering the extensive family networks and the strength of the actual mother, (claws, fangs, demonic aura etc, this shouldn't be too big of a problem.

Of course, if you throw magic in the mix none of that matters anymore.

As far as transforming, I'm not sure I see the problem as long as the size of both forms is comparable. If say a youkai who could transform to be as large as Sesshomaru tried to turn while pregnant with a roughly human-sized baby gestating, I can certainly see how that would be a problem. As far as organ squishing, that is already happening, and the womb is in roughly the same space in a quadruped as a biped, as long as the transformed form is not significantly smaller than the original I think it'd be fine.

The size thing does kind of make me wonder, though-- would a demon of Sesshomaru's lineage be able to maintain the smaller form during pregnancy? In the manga they call that huge dog form his "true form", so wouldn't any full-youkai pups be roughly on that scale? Inuyasha obviously wasn't, but he can't transform.

Hmm.

Sp@ceMonkey wrote:


The size thing does kind of make me wonder, though-- would a demon of Sesshomaru's lineage be able to maintain the smaller form during pregnancy? In the manga they call that huge dog form his "true form", so wouldn't any full-youkai pups be roughly on that scale? Inuyasha obviously wasn't, but he can't transform.

Hmm.

I know! It totally messes with your brain. In truth I've only seen this size thing written about once by a professional author in the Cheysuli series with the character Alix, being able to assume human or animal form. Pregnant with her firstborn she shape-shifted multiple times, and in doing so forced her baby to change along with her, thus messing with his magical-ness when he was actually born.

Weird.

She shifted into a falcon, and then a wolf. Big size difference. I'm surprised she or the baby didn't die.

Ouch.

Also, her husband did tell her that shifting while pregnant was dangerous for the baby, he was all right in the end, but the hubby made the comment like the baby was 'forced to shape-shift before he had a true form of his own'.

Long story short, the mommy Alix freaked out.

Baby survived, but yeah she was nuts for being that reckless.

~ Pyre