Why pregnancies failed on the island..?

[sadavidas]

Two theories seem to be going around about this, the more older and seemingly more common one being that this was caused by the Incident.  Was this ever explicitly said during the series or the writers or is it just a theory.

Since the emergence of Jacob and his rules, the other theory is that this is one of his rules.  This is also supported by the fact that no past group of people was able to maintain their civilization.  It is also supported by the fact that Jacob primarily brought/allowed people to the island in search of his replacement and he eliminating Kate from consideration because she was a mother.

I was just wondering if I missed or forgot something and if the Incident theory was ever given as the explanation.

[this is some crazy stuff]

I think that once we discovered what the statue was of, we all stopped believing in the theory that the incident caused it.   For the statue to be of the goddess of fertility then we can assume that the people there even before the black rock had trouble having kids as well.

[LostinLock]

There is a theories and speculations spot

[I_Am_Jacob]

Yeah we can pretty much put this one to bed.

[CastawayCayley]

I know the statue supposedly solves this but it still doesn't sit well with me. Ethan was born on the island. The problem with the fertility wasn't that women couldn't get pregnant, it was that they would get to the 3rd trimester and the something in the mother's body would "attack" the fetus. I know they said women would go off island to have the babies but it wasn't the delivery that was the problem, as witnessed by Danielle, Claire, Claudia and Amy. It was internal, earlier in the pregnancy. I just feel like they had a nice little mystery going, then called an audible, made the statue a fertility god and changed it to "no babies, ever."

[lostlady]

I know the statue supposedly solves this but it still doesn't sit well with me. Ethan was born on the island. The problem with the fertility wasn't that women couldn't get pregnant, it was that they would get to the 3rd trimester and the something in the mother's body would "attack" the fetus. I know they said women would go off island to have the babies but it wasn't the delivery that was the problem, as witnessed by Danielle, Claire, Claudia and Amy. It was internal, earlier in the pregnancy. I just feel like they had a nice little mystery going, then called an audible, made the statue a fertility god and changed it to "no babies, ever."

My two cents:
I think if a woman got pregnant then she went off the island and came back right before delivery or after the baby was born (depending on the schedule of the sub!). That could explain how Ethan was born on the island. Amy came back a few weeks before her due date.

[LostinLock]

another unsolved unrelated issue of the island.  I think it was more driven as the reason to get Sun off the island and part of the O6

[Maxor127]

I don't think the statue had anything to do with it.  I think the fact that the statue was destroyed way back when Richard arrived kills that theory since we've seen other people give birth on the island.  Believing the statue caused it is too much speculation for me, even for Lost.  I think the entire point of Amy giving birth was to show us that the island didn't have fertility problems yet.

If I had to choose a theory, I'd go with the Incident theory, but I'm still unclear as to what the Incident is.

[jamesl]

...If I had to choose a theory, I'd go with the Incident theory, but I'm still unclear as to what the Incident is.

ha ha ha
that may be one of the funniest (but truest) comments yet