Well, we all know about babies in Real Life and the shenanigans that go in making them and then looking after them until they are old enough to look after themselves.But how does it happen in Second Life? Does it happen on Second Life, you ask? Of course it does. But, hoe does it happen and why does it happen? Because we live in a non-biological world, we have to take a difference approach to having babies.
In fact it can be very much like the future predicted for RL.
A lady can go into a shop and buy an avatar with several stages of pregnancy, six, for instance. One where there is nothing showing - a normal avatar. Then there are five stages of pregnancy where there is a discernible bump, which grows according to a timetable set by the RL person to whom the avatar belongs.
There is a very advanced baby which can monitor conversations going on around it and can contribute with its own appropriate comments, an awareness which many people believe in, in RL, but not the talking, of course.
I went to several shops to find out how it all worked. In each place the ladies were very happy to talk to me about it and I learned a great deal.
Having a baby in SL can be a learning experience for some and a cathartic release for others. Every stage from conception (controlled by a HUD which even caters for a percentage success/failure rate until conception occurs) through labour to birth, is covered and, of course the delivery of the baby.
The choice of baby is very wide. You choose, girl, boy, colour of skin, hair and eyes. Babies develop in much the same way they do in RL, growing from newborn to nine years old in some cases.
One “baby shop” had a maternity wing with all the necessary facilities to simulate childbirth in an environment that was very much like a maternity ward in RL.
Never having been through the process (fatherhood in SL) myself, I cannot describe what happens but, like all of us with RL experience, I can be sure that it is very realistic.
One thing I am very sure of is that the ladies that I met were very serious about what they did and were very confident that their services were beneficial to many customers, helping mums to be the overcome fears they have of childbirth in RL. Several ladies in the shop at the same time as me were very kind and described how going through pregnancy and childbirth in SL helped them approach the process in RL with more confidence or get over the loss of a real child.
What could appear to many as inappropriate and sentimental came across to me, from what the services providers and past and current customers told me, as a very sincere and worthwhile virtual service and gave a range of experiences which satisfied the needs of the many different customers with their very different needs.
Kim Trefusis
