Since gorgons and cecaelia lay eggs rather then live birth do they skip all the usual pregnancy stuff? Swollen bellies. Morning sickness. Weird cravings. Violent mood swings. And all that stuff? And what do they think of live birth and nursing?
This subject was somewhat addressed in this older ask, but that was more about menstruation than pregnancy.
In short: Yes, both gorgons and cecaelia have similar pregnancy symptoms as humans, even though they lay eggs.
Female gorgons are only fertile for one week per year. If they aren't impregnated by a male during this time, they experience "period-like" symptoms but without bleeding. But if they are impregnated, their eggs will expand over the course of several months as the fetuses grow inside 2-4 eggs. I can't imagine this is a pleasant feeling. Now, gorgon anatomy is very different from human anatomy, including womb size and placement. To accommodate all these large eggs, gorgon wombs are quite wide. So instead of their bellies bloating outward like a pregnant human's, they appear to get fatter around the hip/lower abdominal area. If a gorgon is already overweight, it can be hard to tell that she's pregnant at all.
Dramatic hormone changes take place, which cause them to eat more and behave more aggressively. The egg-laying itself is very painful and can take several hours just like a live birth. Depending on the number of eggs and their size, it can cause serious injury up to the point of being fatal in some cases.
As for female cecaelia, they lay a clutch of eggs every 50 years. Their species breeds without contact, so it's up to a male to fertilize this egg clutch after it leaves her body in order to reproduce. So, all female cecaelia basically "give birth" every half-century no matter what. The only things that can interrupt this process are certain herbs or high levels of stress, which causes their bodies to abort the process.
Otherwise, in the months leading up to that 50-year mark, female cecaelia begin to bloat up similar to gorgons as the egg clutch expands in their wombs. They can get quite large depending on how many eggs are in the clutch. Usually it's anywhere from 2-5, but in rare cases they have been known to pass up to 7-8 eggs. Cecaelia eggs are quite a bit smaller than gorgon eggs, but there tends to be more of them and these eggs have a thick jelly-filled membrane around them called a "clutch" which makes them all stick together. These clutches can be physically traumatic to pass due to their size. The actual egg-laying is similar to a human giving birth--it's something the cecaelia needs to take a day off for because it's painful and time-consuming. Luckily their regenerative powers help them heal quickly afterwards, so egg-laying never fatal for this species as it can sometimes be for gorgons.
As for these species' opinions on live births and breastfeeding, I guess it would really boil down to the individual. I'm sure some think it's weird or disgusting, some find it fascinating, and maybe some are jealous of it.
Sovereign, for example, finds these concepts repulsive and uses it as one more reason to call Terrians inferior to Aquarians, since almost all Terrians are mammals. Meanwhile his brother Mr. Ocean, also a cecaelia, finds it all very interesting and wonderous. So that's proof that everyone can have their own opinion about it regardless of their species.
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