The Wordsmith's Forge

Miscarriage, still birth, and deaths in early childhood are distressingly common in Northern culture. People are all the more upset now because after the Itadesh fire, they've lost extra people, so they're trying -- and not always succeeding -- to make up the lost ground. The Elders are encouraging all fertile adults to make an effort, even the ones who usually don't and have already given their village a child. It's hard.