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How can you handle pregnancy in AD&D games?
This is one of those aspects of AD&D gaming that is left up to the DM�s decisions; all campaigns are different, and the elves (for example) within one campaign could legitimately have longer gestation periods than those in another campaign. As a general rule of thumb, it can probably be asserted that elves have the longest pregnancy times (possibly as much as 2 years); dwarves, gnomes, humans, halflings, and half-elves are all about the same, between 8 and 12 months, and orcs and humanoids would have shorter gestation periods, possible ranging down to 6 months. These are only suggestions, however; what the DM decides for his campaign is the final answer.

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Once the mother is pregnant, you must determine how long before the child is born. The gestation period for humans is nine months. This is the proper period for most man-sized creatures. Gnomes and halflings might require shorter lengths of time. In nature, the length of gestation depends on the birth weight of the baby, not on the lifespan of the species.

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Originally posted by kuje31

It's third party but the Book of Erotic Fantasy says 12 months. And yes yes I've heard all the comments back and forth about this book so please don't comment on that book. :) I happen to think parts of it are useful. :)

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Dare we ask which parts?

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Originally posted by SiriusBlack

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Dare we ask which parts?

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Well, it certainly proved useful for addressing this topic.

Sirius who purchased the BOEF for the same reason he purchases any Playboy magazines, purely for the informative articles.

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Originally posted by kuje31

It's third party but the Book of Erotic Fantasy says 12 months. And yes yes I've heard all the comments back and forth about this book so please don't comment on that book. :) I happen to think parts of it are useful. :)

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I�m not surprised you found nothing in TSR sources about gestation periods of halflings. Fertility, birthing details, and such were all part of the ghost-aura �we don�t talk about such things� that surrounded the absolute prohibitions of the Code of Ethics (I once had a DRAGON article about matters Arthurian rejected because I was told the word �lovers� could not be used to explain the legend of Arthur falling out with Lancelot over Guinevre). I recall (on one of my annual GenCon-time visits to the TSR offices) being told the horror stories of how two particular someones had put a section on dragon courtship and mating into the (original, 2e) DRACONOMICON, and how it had been hastily ripped out (�What were they THINKING?�). I recall at the time thinking to myself, �What�s all the fuss? Such details SHOULD be in such a sourcebook. Even more so in anything that purports to be a �Complete Guide� to any race.
[If I�d been writing that original DRACONOMICON, I�d have made sure to explore questions like this: How do dragons mate, physically? Do they engage in foreplay (distinctive calls, dancing, anything my PCs could recognize)? Are they VERY wary of the world around when doing so, or does lust or instinct or whatever take over and leave them barely caring about approaching PCs, or PCs carting chests of stuff from their hoards past them during the fun? If dragons lay eggs, where do they prefer to lay them, how many are in a clutch, how large and heavy are they, are they rubbery or hard-shelled, how fragile if a PC handles them, do they have to be kept warm to stay fertile, if broken can the contents at least be used by PCs to cook, on the trail, what can buyers tell about an egg (age, condition, breed) by just eyeballing it, and so on. And I�d remind any prudes that we�re talking about imaginary creatures here, so there�s absolutely NOTHING to be prudish about!]
So let us turn to this matter of halfling gestation periods.
Heterochrony and heterotopy are probably beyond the scope of the general D&D rules, and we�re speaking of imaginary creatures that we can �do anything with� if we really want to, but the D&D rules have always been humanocentric, and included whales and sharks and other real-world beasties, complete with reptilian, mammalian, and so on descriptors.
The observed rule in real-world life, among placental mammals, is that larger body size (which is also coupled to slower heart rate and longer lifespan) means a longer gestation period. The lifespan is the only possible complicating factor here; otherwise it�s pretty clear that halflings should clearly have a shorter gestation period than the human one (which averages shorter than nine months, by the way, even leaving aside what medical meddling does to that average). So I�d go for that 7 to 8 months.
However, halflings DO have a longer lifespan. On the other hand, their onset of puberty isn�t more than seven years longer, at most, than for humans, and only about four years later than many human societies (because human subracial traits, diets, and customs all play a part in human puberty onset). Moreover, the �deft, quick, agile� racial traits of halflings DON�T go with lower heart rates (such as, say, elephants have). So we have one factor arguing for a longer than human gestation period (12 months at most, and more likely 11 or 10-and-a-half), and two factors arguing against it.
We can�t tell if these factors are of equal strength; if they were, it�d be pretty simple to determine. If we try to weight them slightly, we could probably do something like this: 9 plus 1 is 10 (lifespan), plus a half-point (slightly later puberty, and I say �slightly� because the range of variance is only very slightly larger than the ranges found in humans due to individual genetic differences), minus 2 (great difference in size), minus a half for the heart rate difference, and we�re back at 8 months (or so).
We can of course decree anything, halflings being imaginary, but as usual the D&D rules are flexible enough to give us an out, or rather to please everyone: in the Realms we (now, with the current rules edition) have Ghostwise, Lightfoot, and Strongheart halflings. This allows us to give a range of gestation periods, and I�d plump for the Lightfoots to be closest to the humans they so often dwell among, and Ghostwise (the most reclusive) to be the most different. Otherwise, gestation period differences would have been noticed by humans long ago and been a clear defining trait of the halfling race in the game rules from the outset.
We know of real-world creatures in which pregnant females (almost certainly instinctively rather than consciously) can control the development of young within their own bodies until conditions are right. Halflings might have this ability too, but it could only go so far in concealing differences in gestation from humans, It seems to me most likely that Lightfoot halflings would have gestation periods more or less the same as human (perhaps a tenday or less shorter). Ghostwise halflings could have the ten- or even eleven-month gestation period if you�d like (which goes with their strong reliance on clan; the more immature or incapable newborn young are, the more tending they need), and Stronghearts could have the shortest (seven, seven-and-a-half, or eight).
Years ago, I did the Five Shires gazetteer for the Known World (Mystara), and that conception of halflings had darkfire and other racial magics; I�ve always thought that elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings could all possess fertility magics that control how young develop, when birthing becomes imminent, and so on. These, too, could become factors (although I�d also say that priests and elders of the races would control such magics, not adventuring PCs).

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