Requirements
It’s possible to have babies in 3rd World Farmer, however there are some requirements.
First of all, only the female head of the family or spouse to the head of the family can have babies. In order to do so, she must be at relatively good health (> 50%), be 18 years or older, and must not have lost her fertility due to natural ageing. This usually happens around age 40 in the game, which is simplified compared to the age variations in real life.
The last requirement to having babies is that there must not already be eight family members on the farm. Eight is the maximum number of (concurrent) family members in the game. This is actually a totally arbitrary maximum number, but neccessary for technical and game balancing reasons.
If all the requirements are met, clicking the ‘Have Baby‘-button for the selected woman will result in the message that she is now pregnant!
Effects of Pregnancy
While pregnant, the mother’s workload capacity will be half of what it normally is. She will also be in no condition to leave the farm while pregnant, so the ‘Leave Farm‘-button will not work for her.
At the begining of the following game turn, when the baby is born, the mother’s workload capacity returns to normal. The baby itself will have a negative workload contribution, because babies require care rather than contribute to farm work. The child’s workload score will remain negative or at zero until the child is 6 years old. At that age it can contribute some to the work on the farm.
There’s an added annual living cost for each new family member, so having kids costs money to begin with, although the added work capacity makes up for that as they grow up.
When to Have Babies?
Children are neccessary for securing the future of the household, but there’s an up-front cost in money and work capacity when having babies, so it’s best not to have them when every resource is needed for survival. However, delaying it for too long could result in infertility, which could spell an early end to the game.
We suggest experimenting through multiple game sessions, not just with when to have kids, but also with sending them to school vs. having them work in the field, and marrying them off vs. appointing them to new head of the family and have their spouses move in when married. There are multiple valid strategies.
Please don’t worry if you find it hard to think of the family members as mere economic resources in game mechanical terms of work efficiency and dowries, but actually have emotional considerations about their choices in the game – it just shows that you are human 😉
Additional Information
The only other ways to increase the farm family size in 3rd World Farmer are through marriages and in a rare special event that allows the family to adopt an orphan.
External Links
Wikipedia on ‘Age and female fertility’, 2019:
Fertility, United Nations Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019: