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Don't Expect Maggie To Give Birth Anytime Soon On 'The Walking Dead'

by Megan Walsh

Maggie's pregnancy has been a part of The Walking Dead for a few seasons now, but though it feels like a lot of time has passed, her pregnancy has barely progressed. She doesn't even appear to be showing much at all, which makes one wonder when Maggie will have her baby on The Waking Dead. It doesn't seem like it will be happening any time soon, but she's been pregnant since Season 6. How much longer can it go on?

A while longer, apparently. When asked if fans should expect Maggie to give birth at any point in Season 8, showrunner Scott M. Gimple had a very simple answer: he told Entertainment Weekly that they shouldn't, which could mean the baby won't arrive until Season 9, or even later. That may seem kind of weird at first because Maggie will have been pregnant for three seasons by the time Season 8 finishes up, but while years have passed for the audience, that same block of time has only been weeks for Maggie.

The timeline on the show is much shorter than it may seem when you're watching. Moments passed between Seasons 6 and 7, and days between Seasons 7 and 8. According to co-executive producer Denise Huth, Season 7 took place over the course of just 19 days. Though Glenn's death feels like it happened ages ago, in the world of The Walking Dead it hasn't even been a month.

Maggie is still in the earliest days of her pregnancy, and if Season 8 continues to move at a brisk pace then it would make sense that her baby won't arrive until much later. It can be difficult to keep in mind that so little time is passing, however, which led actress Lauren Cohan to joke, "I always want to put a little ticker tape along the bottom of the episode saying how far into the apocalypse and into the pregnancy we are. Because I'm playing newly pregnant for a really long time."

That may make fans worry about whether or not Maggie will ever actually give birth. She already had a health scare in the Season 6 finale that brought her to the Hilltop for help, and now that Dr. Carson has been taken to the Sanctuary she's been left without medical care. She's also leading the charge in a major war that could put her in some incredibly dangerous situations. It would be heartbreaking if something happened after she already lost Glenn, but it doesn't sound like viewers should worry too much. It may take a while, but there's every indication that Maggie will have the baby some day, especially since she did successfully deliver her son in the comics.

"They say that in pregnancy you can operate on a physical level to the same that you have been," Cohan told Entertainment Weekly. "You don't want to up it once you've been pregnant, but you can continue on the same pattern, and she's been living in this type of world and this type of combat for a really long time." Maggie definitely won't be letting her pregnancy slow her down.

There is a chance, however, that viewers won't actually see Maggie give birth. In The Walking Dead comics, there was a time jump of several years while Maggie was still pregnant, and when the story caught up with her, her son was already a few years old. If the show follows through on a time jump (which was hinted at in the premiere), then the rest of the pregnancy might be skipped right over. Fans will find her running Hilltop and taking care of her son, continuing to be as strong as she's been this entire time.

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