Survival Tip #31:

Reproduction

No one lives forever. The only chance for mankind to survive to see the other side of the Primal Age is by making babies.

Babies are entirely dependent entities that follow no logic and cannot be taught to control their noise levels. That makes them a huge liability.

A dog can be trained to be quiet and doesn’t take one person out of commission. A baby could break into a blood curdling cry at the very worst possible time, and requires one adult to be taken away from other duties.

A dog will never be a fully functioning human that will one day take over the survival of the Primal Age; hence why reproduction is necessary.

A few guide lines to follow for the best chance of survival.

1. Avoid pregnancy when your group is not settled. A baby on the move is nothing more than a zombie snack. Wait until you are in a secure location you plan to make your home.

2. There should be no more than 1 pregnancy per 5 people in the group. In theory you lose the productivity of the pregnant person. 1/5 means the nonpreggers only have to increase their productivity by a little bit.

3. The child should be raised by the group as a whole not just the mother and farther. Each person has a stake in the child’s success of growing to adulthood and it is likely that their parents might not survive the duration of their life.

4. The parent should still play a central role in the child’s upbringing, especially in the area of discipline and reward.

5.Be logical about who is reproducing. Certain specialties can still be utilized when a mother is pregnant or nursing, while others will be totally useless. For example, a female doctor can still successfully do her job while raising a child since most of what she will be doing is using her knowledge base. However, a female soldier loses much of her abilities until the child can be cared for by others.(That’s not to say certain folk shouldn’t reproduce just plan for the most logical time frames)

6. Be sure to properly educate the next generation. Do not let reading and writing go out of style. Also teach them the history of The Old World. They will be the carries of this knowledge going forward.

7. Leave religion in the Old World. I understand many people might be offended by that statement, but there will be enough issues without people deciding to kill each other over religious differences. Raise your child to survive, and whichever God/Gods/Spirits/Flying Spaghetti Monster you believe in should understand.

8. Everyone talks about how awesome the Spartans were. I’m not condemning or condoning their practices with newborns, but if you believe the ends justifies the means look into that.

9. Based on how large your cohort is and the ratio of men to women, reproduction should be viewed as breeding for the best chance of survival. The child will be raised by the group anyhow. Even before a child is born, you should have an idea what its aptitude will be based off of the mother and father. Pick pairs that will give the kid the best chance of survival, and also to spread out your blood lines as much as possible for the most combinations without inbreeding.

10. See Tip #30