gah!!! what a question!!! hmmm...no idea, but you know, it could definitely make for a cool story idea...

I am piddling about with a Spuffy s2 re-write in which Buffy is captured and tortured by Angelus. Since I was in a creepy mindset, I was thinking of really horrible things a vampire could do to someone. This crossed my mind. Like, back in the day, maybe Dru got bored and wanted to see what would happen to the poor woman. Er...it's probably something better left unwritten.

in that sense...yeah, probably is better unwritten :P hehe...though i for one would read it...i was thinking, though...what about the child of a woman-turned-vampire...if it survived...what sort of creature might it be?? hmmm....could be an interesting creation, eh? ;)

heh. i think one could take that situation in a number of plausible directions.

in terms of biology/reality, a fetus has a seperate blood supply than its mother (hence why a baby can have a different blood type than its mother). so i would think, were a pregnant woman turned, the fetus would die. the vampire would either go into spontanious labor after rising, labor would be induced in some way, a c-section would be performed, or (gross) the vampire could probably go on indefinetely with a dead fetus in her.

That's incredibly gross, but I'm gonna have to agree with that answer. And now I'm gonna go back to pretending I never thought about it.

This is what happens when I start thinking about torture scenarios. Really, really horrible thoughts. Hey, at least I'm creative.

*pushes No Escape far away from her*
I started writing an outline. Stop me. Please.

Gah. If you start writing dead fetus/pregnant vampire fics, you may need to find another beta. :-P

Seriously, aren't you supposed to be work on school stuff?

Thanks for answering! Those all sound like reasonable, however horrific and gross, possibilies. I'm playing around with a s2 Spuffy re-write in which Buffy is captured and tortured by Angel, whihch made me think about all the potentially horrible things a vamp could do to someone. This scenario popped into my head. Like maybe oneday Dru got bored and was curious to see what would happen if she tried it.

I have issues... lol, and how did I know you would be the one to have an answer immediately?

Love you.

Well, in Joss Whedon's world, dead women can get pregnant, so this is definitely a toughie. However, I would say that physically speaking, the baby would die once the woman is drained of blood. Of course, what would happen after she rises would depend on how far along she was.

First and even second trimester pregnancies would most likely result in a spontaneous abortion. Whether or not her body would expel the dead fetus would depend, I think, on how the vampiric body really works (something we're not entirely sure of in the Buffyverse). For instance, we don't really know what happens to, say, the digestive system. Does it convert to something capable of processing blood or does it eventually atrophy with a new system forming to derive nourishment from the blood? What would happen to the dead fetus would depend, I think, on what happens to the reproductive organs. As Darla shows, they still exist in some form. So, going by canon, I would say that the female vampire would have to remove (in some way) the fetus she's carrying or carry it inside her for eternity...either way, a big ick factor...

Once you reach, oh, about 32 weeks, the baby is capable of surviving mostly unassisted outside the womb. I would think that once that stage of pregnancy is reached, the baby would most likely be turned along with the mother. However, it's possible it wouldn't turn simply because the placenta filters out most contaminants. So, the question really is would the placenta filter out the foreign blood? Well, that's up for debate. In the articles I read, some things are kept out by the placenta and some things aren't. For example, viruses that the mother has been immunized against are kept out, but airborne pollutants aren't. So that's a toss up.

Still, for a late-term pregnancy it wouldn't be impossible for the baby to turn along with the mother...Although the amount of blood she's given might not be enough to turn both her and the baby in utero...

Sweet response! I thought it might generate some interesting (and well thought out) answers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. All very good points.

I'm feeling sort of morbid today. The thought of carrying a dead fetus around inside of you for eternity is both horrifying and kinda satisfying if one is trying to inflict intense torment. I could see Dru or maybe Angelus getting bored one day and trying it out to see what would happen.

*sigh* I have a disturbed mind. I should go write some porn to get this out of my system.

Am I the only one who didn't think that this was a morbid question? :-P I'd say that the baby dies once the woman is drained of blood. The baby may have it's own blood supply, but it's unlikely to survive once the mother is dead. Of course, I'm no biology expert.

I'm gonna file this in my "Things that Make You Go Hmm..." box :-)

Am I the only one who didn't think that this was a morbid question?
Well, I didn't think it was that bad =)

It does make you go "hmm" though, doesn't it? I agree that the baby probably dies. It's the after part that is somewhat of a quandry. Damned to carry a dead fetus around with you for eternity seems pretty GAH! to me though.