Bens Birth On the Island

We learned last night that women on the island cannot give birth to children. So how was Ben born there? Was his mother already pregnant when she arrived like Claire or Sun? Juliet indicated that Claire was only saved by her serum.......but was that just another lie? Ben's birth on the island would seem to indicate that it must be a lie.........
or maybe the problem did not exist when they arrived but developed along with the research that was being conducted.

Well I think they said that the mothers die b/c their immune system turns on them. That doesn't necessarily mean a child can't survive.

09:17 AM

Not only how did ben survive ,but Danielle said she was seven months pregnant when she arrived at the island. How did she survive giving birth to Alex? Claire had been implanted with a device by ethan when he kidnapped her... but had Ben's mother, or Danielle, or even Sun. I thought the device and the mortality rate of the mothers were two separate things. But maybe not.

^^ thats a good point. But Danielle was constantly hiding in underground hideaways in the jungle. Do you think it has something to do with exposure to the sun or something like that?

My personal opinion is the story about them "saving" Claire's life is a bunch of hooey. Juliet told Ben that the problem developed at the point of conception. The mutation is specific to women who live and conceive on the island. Those that live and conceive off the island are not subject to the same defect. Clair was tested when she arrived on the island to confirm that fact. Then she was implanted in order to be of use to them at a later time. Sun's pregnancy is a little different. We are not really sure if she conceived pre arrival to the island. As was pointed out, her husband may have been healed of his infertility issues when he came to the island. So, if the baby is her secret lover's she should be okay, if it is Jin's she might be doomed.

Don't forget about Carl, was he born there too? We don't know his stroy yet, but he's about the same age as Alex. Maybe, the problem with births started after that. It may be related to people not having cancer. It sounds like people on the island have a super charged immune system, so they can be cured of cancer (except for Bens tumor, which isn't cancer) and none of the Losties ever seem to have problems you would expect in the tropics. Maybe in the D.I.'s effort to increase life span, they created the pregnacy problem

So you have to be pregant a certain amount of months off of the island, in order to be able to give birth on the island without your immune system turning on you. Its interesting how the island almost rejects new life, as if to preserve the island the way it is. hmmm

Without getting too graphic, Sumthnwitty made a good point about super-charged immune systems. With conception the sperm is actually seen by the woman's body as a foreign object and defense agents set to work against the sperm "invasion". It helps prevent more than one sperm fertilizing the egg and creating problems, so there might be something too good about the Others immune system that keeps them cancer-free, but also keeps them sterile. (I hope I explained that well enough without being too detailed for some)

Or if they do indeed get pregnant, the body sees the fetus as a something foreign, cancer, infection etc.

Right Hazzard - that's what I was trying to get across without being to graphic!