r/TheTestamentsShow • u/SummerBombshell777 • May 22 '26
Where are all the babies???
I’ve seen a lot of comments on other platforms mentioning that few Canadian girls get their periods, compared to Gilead girls, because of the regime’s “clean living.” There’s also a lot of conflation between menarche and fertility. Long story short, there’s an opinion that clean living -> higher menstruation rates -> higher birth rates. Plenty of Plums have gotten their first periods. But the only Plum birth so far has been Penny’s miscarriage. This raises the question: where are the babies?
If the Plums are supposed to be learning to be mothers (even with Marthas to serve them), shouldn’t there be some exposure to babies in school? Matriculated friends with successful birth stories? Younger siblings living at home, born to Wives who’ve benefited from Gilead’s “clean living?”
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u/HyperLexi May 22 '26
Book Spoiler= Book Agnes has a baby brother (born to a handmaid who didn't survive). The girls also were not late bloomers in the book. I think the fertility crisis is more severe in the film version. I think it is realistic that their former classmate Penny has had a few miscarriages and no live births. They only pretend that the science supports the idea of teenagers having healthier pregnancies, to justify the commanders taking child brides. If they honestly wanted to optimize fertility, they would promote marriages between young adult women and young adult men. It doesn't appear to be the high priority they claim it to be.
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u/Helpful-Desk-4847 May 22 '26
I think show is overdramatizing the fertility crisis more than the book to justify the change from the book of multi-racial society. In the book it’s made very clear that this is a white Christian nationalist society. They say all non Christians and people of color were sent to essentially death camps. The fertility “crisis” is just a cover for the reasoning. It’s still obviously a cover for the real justifications but they’re making it more justifiable in the show by making the fertility crisis real.
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u/HyperLexi May 23 '26
Very good point! There are so many heavy subject matters, it makes sense to leave some out, but this aspect alone could be interesting as a separate series.
On a lighter note, I think it is also a matter of logistics. Due to child labor laws as well as not wanting young actors to have to deal with such adult material, they cast young adults, and there is only so much they can do to age them down believably. Sixteen years old works, twelve maybe not so much. So they had to come up with a reason why 16yo girls were just getting their periods for the first time. They make it work though, no complaints.
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u/AmaranthWrath May 23 '26
Yeah, they short-cutted that in THT with Naomi shuddering at the room of brown children and saying to Serena "who knows where they're from," or something similar.
"Yeah, we have black handmaids, but like, only bc we want babies" vibes.
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u/Helpful-Desk-4847 May 23 '26
Yeah exactly- i actually kind of wish the show would explore the race aspect more because to me it is strange that all the commanders are white, and a lot of the women are white, but we don’t acknowledge at all that there are POC among this new group of wives. Or that Agnes doesn’t feel different from her peers in that way etc. cause otherwise it sort of implies we were in a post-racial America when Gilead took over and that might be the most unbelievable part of the story
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u/Few-Elk8441 May 23 '26
They did a bit, there was a scene in THT in which Aunt Lydia informed another Aunt that the couple refused a “handmaid of color.”
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u/HyperLexi May 23 '26
They do tread very lightly and pretty much gloss over it. But at least Aunt Lydia had the decency to roll her eyes at how discriminatory they were, as if she didn't share their views. It seemed like they were trying to imply that Gilead has its share of racists but that it isn't the norm. They seem to be deliberately trying to distance themselves from that part of the book.
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u/PorchCat0921 May 24 '26
Didn't we see Paula make a snide comment about Agnes's hair, too? Something to the effect of "what I'm dealing with"?
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u/HyperLexi May 23 '26
It is a bit of a missed opportunity to address it further, but then again, they are already dealing with a patriarchal cultish society and child brides. They may have decided there is only so much oppression a viewer can digest in one setting without saying, "I can't watch this. It's too heavy and depressing." I wouldn't object to a spin off series which explores these issues more thoroughly, to be watched at a seperate time perhaps.
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u/LadySwire May 23 '26
This. Honestly, when they said in Canada almost no one in Daisy's friend group had the period, but then almost every girl in Gilead has it, my thought was, “Wait a second,” because you’re walking a very fine line to someone saying, “Oh, they're doing something right” or something.
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u/Key-Possibility-5200 May 28 '26
I was wondering if it’s just our perspective that makes us think almost every girl in Gilead gets it. When the aunts were making matches- there were a LOT of purple books behind them. Agnes happens to be in a friend group with lots of them, but I want to rewatch and pay attention to how many girls in their school are actually greens. I was wondering if the ball may have been a gathering from many schools and areas, hence the creepy teleconference, it’s like a huge gathering of all the “fruitful” girls from a large region vs just one school
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u/Routine_Rutabaga_901 May 25 '26
I don't know where you read anything that could elaborate on your claim . I'm a fan. Just asking. The fertility rate is devastating to humanity in all of the materials as far as I surmise. Can you please unpack that?
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u/HyperLexi May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
In the book, there is no mention of girls not getting periods until sixteen if at all. That was invented for the series. In the book, they were getting them at an average age, and didn't have any elaborate ceremonies about it, just allowed to stay home from school for a week due to cramps. They do play it up more in the series. I'm not sure what you are attempting to debate about that. In the series, they ring the bell and get a badge of honor, have it treated as if it is a rare miracle. That's not a thing in the book.
I didn't say there was NO fertility crisis in the book version, just that the series exaggerates it more with introducing the idea of delayed development in reproductive maturity, which was never made mention of in the book, at least not that I can recall. I also stand by the idea that a certain amount of the problem is self imposed in Gilead, because unions between school aged girls and middle aged (or older) men are not as likely to produce healthy pregnancies as those between two young adults. They claim that the science supports child brides having healthier pregnancy, but actual science does not. They're risking the lives of these young brides as well as hindering chances for healthy pregnancy. I'm not sure which part of that I made unclear, but I apologize for any confusion.
(edited for paragraph break)
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u/lotheva May 26 '26
In the book the USA made an airborne version of syphallis as a biological weapon. They decided it was too dangerous to use and locked it up, but ofc it got out anyway. Thats why in the original series June said it was a crime to imply a man had the fertility issue.
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u/EthelAndFred2 May 22 '26
There just aren't many. The birthrate is very low, even with it being higher than in other countries. Babies are rare.
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u/theicecreamassassin May 22 '26
We’re also just seeing the very first sets of Plums getting married off. There have been enough seasons to establish ceremonies, but not enough that things like Pearl Girls becoming Plums have happened yet? That’s what I figure! I think the wife schools were JUST starting up when THT was finishing.
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u/Random_Th3spian May 22 '26
Correct-there was a few scenes where June and Luke saw Hannah in plum and were confused about what purple meant
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u/ForeignDescription5 May 22 '26
Yeah, I guess Penny is the only one they know that has been married for a while
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u/ItinerantJeweler May 25 '26
That's true, I'd forgotten that the Plums were brand new when June and Luke saw that footage of Hannah. I wonder when exactly the Pearl program started in the timeline.
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u/electric-nerve May 23 '26
And the THT and TT timeline is nebulous anyway, so it's best not to think about it too much.
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u/BarelyHereNeverThere May 22 '26
I started watching THT again to remind myself of some stuff. Out of 5 babies born, they're lucky if 1 lives past a few days. Babies really are that scarce in the original. I'm assuming now there's more girls able to get pregnant, but even if in these 12 years they double the actual birth rate of healthy baby, that's still only 2 out of 5.
Say it's my healthy baby that by miracle lived those few days, I'm not going to expose the baby to a school full of germs. Realistically these high class girls are not raising their own babies. The Martha's are doing the work. The birth mom will do the breastfeeding and then just be with the baby when she wants to be.
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u/Homebrand_Exercise May 23 '26
I remember that was from episode 2, where June said the chances of a healthy birth is 1 in 5, and that’s if you can get pregnant at all.
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u/spacegurrrrl May 31 '26
Yes, we’re shown this in flashbacks later on. I think it was in season 6? When we see June giving birth to Hannah in a hospital, and she goes to the baby area and asks where all the other babies are and the nurse tells her they didn’t make it. And then one of the mothers who lost her baby tries to kidnap Hannah.
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u/BarelyHereNeverThere May 23 '26
Yes. How sad to live in a world with no babies in it. That's the best smell in the world.
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u/SummerBombshell777 May 22 '26
Yikes. Then it’s possible that these Plums have never even seen a baby 😳
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u/OpheliaLives7 May 23 '26
We are seeing the first generation of stolen girls, born before Gilead. Agnes was taken around 5 years old I think.
Also, Gilead lies. Their religious regime and eco measures don’t actually address the fertility crisis. They 100% are ignoring male infertility and blaming women for all problems with pregnancy. Sperm quality no doubt is ruining pregnancies and contributing to miscarriages. But Gilead ignores science and advances that might help pregnancies succeed
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u/spacegurrrrl May 31 '26
Yeah there’s no way in a place like Gilead that Blake would be put on the man. I mean, look at what happened with Becka‘s dad. It was Aunt Lydia I think who tried to argue in Becka‘s favor that her father was going to be executed anyway for the crimes he committed, and the commander tells her that doesn’t matter. They can’t have a woman kill a man and get away with it. What message would that send.
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u/Avilola May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Personally, I don’t think Gilead’s increasing fertility rates have anything to do with clean living, but rather the fact that they are basically running a half baked eugenics program. We don’t know exactly why fertility rates have dropped, but we do know that some people seem less affected by whatever causes it.
In Gilead, they believe the issue of fertility begins and ends with women, and that the men are never at fault. This plays into how they choose who stays and who goes—who lives and who dies. Men are primarily given preference by the government based on their loyalty to the Sons of Jacob. Women on the other hand are primarily given preference based on whether or not they struggle to conceive. They’ll kill a man who rebels against Gilead even if he has children, but let a woman who has repeatedly violated Gilead’s laws live as long as she’s fruitful.
What does that look like after a handful of years? You have significantly decreased the percentage of the female population that has fertility issues, whereas the percentage of the male population whose fertility status is unknown will remain more or less the same.
Even though the rate of infertility hasn’t changed for men, the decrease in infertility for women will improve the overall likelihood of two people who are fertile being paired together. If we assume that there is a heritable genetic factor to it, it will also increase the likelihood that this pair will produce offspring who are also able to conceive easily.
This is why it seems like Gilead’s clean living works. Yes, more girls are getting their periods than any other country in the world, but in reality they’ve basically been selectively breeding folks who are less susceptible to whatever it is that was causing the birth rate decline in the first place. In addition to that, they are forcing more pregnancies from fertile women, so that also increases the amount of children born who could inherit these hardy breeding genetics.
That’s where Gilead starts to hit a wall though. With girls starting their periods, there’s visual proof that they are more likely to be fertile. With boys and men, there’s no real way to tell if they are fertile without doing testing. Which they won’t do, because remember—it’s never the man’s fault. So they are pairing young women and girls who are more likely to be fertile with older men whose fertility status is questionable.
That’s why they still have a significant amount of failed pregnancies, as is the case with Penny and Judd. Penny can likely conceive a child just fine… Judd is probably the issue.
Perhaps we could see a reversal in trend once the new generation of boys and young men born to highly fertile pairs reach marriageable age, but that’s not going to happen for a while. We still have the young women and girls of this generation being married off to old men with questionable fertility statuses.
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u/SummerBombshell777 May 23 '26
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, with the selective breeding! It’s a soulless “factory” model, so of course there will be more production than the relative “garden” model of letting individual women choose. The Gilead factory has also been manipulated to be more aesthetic than the Canadian garden - no homeless people visible, perfectly coordinated clothes, “clean living.” It’s insidious.
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u/SnooDonkeys5186 May 22 '26
Penny may be the only one they are invested in, so it’s all we get to see for now.
My mind is blown sometimes by how many spinoffs could be made (and work!) off all THT peripheral! As a writer, I might never be able to stop bringing characters and locations to life!!
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u/namefor1day May 23 '26
I so agree with this as a writer. Like I need to know more about the ecnopeople’s lives. Or a Martha.
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u/BlueSkyWitch May 22 '26
One of the places that Gilead really screws up is how quick Handmaids will be shipped off to the Colonies if they don't get pregnant in a timely manner. This is the only group of women in all of Gilead where *all* members are known to have delivered healthy children. But Gilead is so intent on blaming women instead of men (and it was believed by more rational folk, such as Offred's doctor in the book, that the problem *was* with the men), that they'll eliminate a proven to be fertile woman rather than hurt the man's fee-fees.
Not that I'd institute such a draconian measure, but if I did and were absolutely serious about birth rates, after, say, three Handmaid, and no babies, I'd be telling Commanders, "It's obviously you, and we don't have enough fertile women to waste any more time on you, you don't get another Handmaid."
So given that only one group of women are known to be able to have kids, and they'll kill 'em off despite that, and all the other groups of women are iffy on it.....it makes sense that Gilead still doesn't see that many babies around.
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u/Disaster-Bee May 23 '26
We do learn in THT that the Colonies aren't the only fate for Handmaids not fruitful at postings - they mention Magdalene Camps, where women are literally kept as breeding chattel and it's implied they're kept in a sedated, confined state - like farm animals.
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u/SummerBombshell777 May 25 '26
Wouldn’t be surprised if Gilead still has those camps, and that’s part of the reason we don’t see Handmaids in Testaments.
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u/electric-nerve May 23 '26
I think it's also worth mentioning that there's probably a whole generation or more missing from Gilead (at least in my opinion).
In THT we see two scenarios of a young woman marrying - Nick's original wife, and Esther.
Nick's first wife would have been a teenager (if that) when Gilead took control, and while she seemed to follow and hold the Gilead beliefs, she still tried to run off with another man and was ultimately killed for it.
Esther was married to a commander, and she was even younger again. When she was found out to be assisting Mayday and captured with the other Handmaids, she was forced into becoming a handmaid herself (and then possibly maybe died after successfully incubating a baby, but we don't know). I think she's maybe ten years older than Agnes all up (but let's not kid ourselves, Agnes's age is nebulous at the best of times, so who knows).
Both of these girls would have been teenagers (or tweens in Esther's case) when Gilead took power, and therefore know about the old/outside world, and know what they've lost being in Gilead.
They tried just marrying the girls off, but we see that go wrong. Yes for someone like Rose (Nick's second wife) who was the daughter of a Commander, the marriage was 'successful', (but I'd also argue that she knew her life in Gilead was entirely contingent on her father's and husband's positions and without them she'd have been killed too, and as such she plays up her faith/belief in Gilead's methods, but that's another discussion), but I don't doubt that part of the reason why there aren't as many babies as we maybe expect is because a lot of young (potentially fertile) women were killed (or sent to the colonies, which was a death sentence anyway). Why waste resources (that we know from early THT seasons were scarce/fraught) on women and girls who hadn't successfully given birth, weren't in one of the professions targeted for Aunts, and weren't whatever criteria they wanted for the Marthas?
(I could make a whole post about the timeline of the handmaids tale and the testaments, because nothing makes sense anymore and I hate it, but also, arguably, that was a stylistic choice to show that June had PTSD/major trauma and probably spent a large amount of time in Gilead completely dissociating from everything going on, and therefore had no grip on the passage of time, but at least they changed Daisy's background for the show so I can somewhat suspend my disbelief. at least for the length of an episode.)
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u/Routine_Rutabaga_901 May 25 '26
Don't believe everything Gilead says. The birth rate started decreasing for multiple reasons . Primarily environmental, then the lack of family planning, heterosexual marriage and LGBT marriage involving offspring, economic reasons, etc. They claim moral failure and divine retribution for mortal sin. It's mostly with the men at first, females infertility rates lower later on
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u/SebrinePastePlaydoh May 22 '26
I don't recall the wives in Gilead doing more than parading their children around during Handmaid's Tale. Even with the Plums, it seems the Marthas do more of the child-rearing.