Birthing Charm

A ritual beloved by midwives. When a woman is pregnant, the father creates a small stylized human figure and performs ritual actions over it for ten days. After it is complete, the man ceremonially presents it to the mother, who must keep it on her person or within arm’s reach at all times. If some misfortune strikes that would harm the child at any point up until the umbilical cord is severed, the Birthing Charm breaks and the child is left unscathed. A replacement Charm may be made, but it will only be effective if the couple honors the old one with appropriate funerary rites, showing their thanks and respect for the sacrifice it made. If a Birthing Charm survives the pregnancy, it becomes inactive at the baby’s birth and slowly wears away, although some cultures place it above the cradle (granting the baby a +1 bonus to any saves it needs to make in its first year).

During the creation of the charm the father spends about half an hour, and invests a small part of his life force (one hit point), each day of the ten-day span. (This harm can be healed naturally.) The base difficulty is d4, and often a midwife will be guiding the charm’s creation.