Most people believe that snakes laid eggs. However, this wasn't entirely correct. There are some species of snake who produce offspring in the form of eggs, but don't actually lay then. The eggs remain inside their body, feeding on yolk in their individual eggs instead of having a placental connection with their mothers. When the time comes for them to be born, they hatch inside their mother's body before exiting it.
The green anaconda is one of those ovoviviparious species and that is something that Typhoon and Waterlily probably wished they had considered before becoming bondmates with Iphis and Ianthe. Not the unusual triumvirate didn't love each other very much, but carrying so many young in your womb became quite a burden. Fortunately, they only had six offspring each instead of the 20-40 that anacondas usually had. There were complications enough with them being hermaphrodites, though the doctors had assured them that their male genitalia shouldn't get in the way of the birthing process.
Still, when the time for birthing came, it wasn't an easy process. As any woman would tell you, it just about the most painful thing to experience naturally. While there wasn't the ripping of umbilical cords and placentas in this case, it was still stressful to push out six baby snakes. The births were being filmed so that Horizon would know what to expect with hermaphroditic pregnancies in the future. The other herms were also watching the process to see what they'll have to experience eventually. Though some of the viewers soon found they had to look away as the process was not really appealing to watch.
While the anacondas have had epidural when they entered labor, there was still quite a lot of screaming and swearing involved. Most of it came from Ty, who loudly stated (with some truth) that no man should have to go through this kind of agony. But eventually, the final hatchling had emerged and the three of them could finally relax. With six babies each, there were quite a lot of mouths to feed now. More so, actually, because two of the children had inherited Iphis and Ianthe's polycephaly. The genders were rather mixed throughout the brood. While there were plenty who had inherited their parents' hermaphrodism, there were a few who were unisexual. Those included the two-headed babies, Ty having given birth to a son while Lily bore a daughter. They obviously didn't have enough breasts to feed them all, but they had been stockpiling breast milk for the last few days so none of the hissing newborns would be going hungry.
While their children were being fed, Iphis said, "It's going to take a while to think up names for all of them."
"Maybe we should compare notes with Mrs. Piper," said Ianthe half-jokingly, "She has more experience with mass births."
"What I'm worried about is how we're going to raise them all," said Lily, "I mean, we have 18 kids now. 20 if you count our double-headers. It's going to be a hassle to take care of all of them."
"Well, I'm not sure what we should do," said Iphis, "For normal anacondas, once you hatch, you're on your own."
"Most hatchlings don't live too long," said Ianthe, "It's why we have so many."
"Maybe...we should consider double-dosing them," said Ty.
"Ty," said Lily with shock, "Don't tell me you want to skip our children's childhoods."
"Not all of them," said Ty, "But perhaps some of them so we won't have to deal with an impossible number."
"I hope that's mostly the epidural talking," said Lily.
"Maybe, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to go through this again," said Ty, "At least not with me as the mother."
"But you make such a good mother," said Lily, "Look how your babies love you."
Ty looked down to see the two babies currently latched onto hir breasts. "Well, yeah, but I don't want to have to go through that any time soon."
"Not much sense in making more soon anyways," said Iphis.
"True, we are up to our knees in babies," said Lily.
"Knees?" asked Ianthe, shi, hir sister, and Ty giving Lily odd looks.
"Sorry, wrong analogy," said Lily, "I guess the epidural's making me loopy too."
"Let's just rest now and worry about child-raising later," said Ty. Shi was certainly ready for a long nap. Shi was glad to be both mother and father, but it was still the most exhausting thing shi had ever done. Perhaps when their heads were clearer, they'd be able to think of what to do with their 18 children.