Stormlight and pregnancy (ROW and Dawnshard spoilers)

[WandererNearby]

Let me preface this by saying that I am asking a question related to how the magic works. I don't want to bring up the intensely hot morality debate around this subject.

Could Stormlight positively or negatively affect the child in the womb of a pregnant woman? We know that the person's image of their body is important to healing (see the Reshi monarch and Rysn). It makes me wonder how it apply in that situation. Like, could a woman imagining her child as healthy fix a child's a cleft palate? Or could a woman terminate early by healing while not imagining herself pregnant? 

[Weltall]

For whatever it's worth, Brandon has RAFO'd the question of when someone on Nalthis gets their Breath so it's clearly something he wants people to debate and it's probably being debated offscreen by Silverlight scholars. My guess is that since your spiritweb is, well, Spiritual and we know that can be extremely wonky with regards to things like 'time', the essential Investiture that makes a child in the womb a distinct individual from the mother happens early, possibly even at conception because at least in some contexts we know that spiritwebs don't care all that much about biology when it comes to their operation, though they are quantifiable with the right knowledge.

With all that, I suspect that once the child has their spiritweb in place, nothing the mother does with stormlight healing (or other self-targeting magics) can change the child's body because their spiritweb is not their child's spiritweb. Caveat to this, an Edgedancer or Truthwatcher might be able to do more if they use Regrowth, but it still wouldn't work on genetic issues. Basic stormlight healing might be able to prevent things that could be transmitted from mother to child Physically (ie, what can happen in the real world with, say, drugs or alcohol) if the healing is able to prevent the underlying cause though, and exposure to stormlight whether used by the mother for healing or not probably means the child will be healthier than normal since we know exposure to it makes Rosharans a healthy bunch on average. I definitely don't think that stormlight or other healing could terminate a pregnancy however, for the same reasons that it can't prevent aging, certain genetic conditions and the like: Spiritually-speaking there's nothing wrong with the mother for the magic to operate on. One point in favor of this take: Shallan notes that despite being a Radiant, she still gets menstrual cramps. Also, Lift freaks out when she gets her first period in Edgedancer and as far as she's concerned at the time something is wrong with her, but her magic (which includes the more powerful Regrowth) disagrees.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Weltall

[LewsTherinTelescope]

On 8/20/2021 at 7:57 AM, DougTheRug said:

Like, could a woman imagining her child as healthy fix a child's a cleft palate?

A pregnant Radiant can heal their child(ren) in the womb, yes:

Quote

Questioner

Can Radiants have kids?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Can they heal their kids?

Brandon Sanderson

Can they heal their kids?

Questioner

Like, during the process.

Brandon Sanderson

During... like, in-utero?

Questioner

Yes.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

JordanCon 2021 (July 17, 2021)

 

On 8/20/2021 at 7:57 AM, DougTheRug said:

Or could a woman terminate early by healing while not imagining herself pregnant? 

My gut feeling is that there are perception shenanigans one might be able to work out to pull it off, but that by default, it would not do this (for example, Shallan and Lift both get their periods, and express some displeasure over this [Lift much more so due to her "don't wanna be older" thing]).

23 hours ago, Weltall said:

For whatever it's worth, Brandon has RAFO'd the question of when someone on Nalthis gets their Breath so it's clearly something he wants people to debate and it's probably being debated offscreen by Silverlight scholars.

To be honest, I think this is likely something Brandon will shy away from for a while yet, due to certain extremely fraught debates (at least in the US, dunno how strong the arguments are elsewhere) that it'd bring up. (For example, that extremely loaded comment from a questioner in that very WoB.)

[Marukka]

There is of course no 100% scientific answer, but I guess the big difference is that even the earliest embryo in a mother's womb is a seperate being. If the mother is an Edgedancer or Truthwatcher she might influence the child but it might not be possible for her to change any birthdefects since the child has never been any different.

As for terminating a pregnancy... difficult question. I do not think that the body would see a pregnancy as something like an injury or a wound, anything that needs to be healed. If anything Stormlight might ease the menstruation by healing the membrane. If this happens excessively I could imagine that it might lead to a woman being more fertile than usual. Anyway, for the pregnancy to be terminated, the womb would have to reject the embryo and repel the healthy lining inside the womb. It does not sound like something that Stormlight is likely to do but then: I am not an expert with Stormlight. 

[Frustration]

Considering that Hemalurgic overlays are gained at conception the child is likely unable to be affected in anyway

Edited August 21, 2021 by Frustration

[Proletariat]

It could be good as a method of birth control and preventing yourself becoming pregnant in the first place if you don't want it happening. But I think the more difficult thing would be causing an abortion - if your body kept healing while trying to induce a miscarriage the whole thing could be really unpleasant.