When my roommate was pregnant a few years ago, she sucessfully hid her pregnancy for 8 months. She was an athlete who only had light periods, so she didn't even realize she was pregnant until she was about 4 months along, and then she didn't gain much weight, and she had a vested interest not to let anyone know, so she just kept it hidden until it became so obvious she had to tell people she was pregnant.
There are a lot of reasons women don't have regular periods. My roommate has PCOS -- poly cysic ovarian syndrome -- and se only has her period once every few months. Another friend of mine has a similar problem where she only gets her period once every year or so. Stress especially can cause you not to have it. I know that around midterms, finals, thesis defenses and other stressful times, several of my friends have thought they were pregnant -- and really the stress they were under caused them not to have their periods.
Lois shouldn't have any trouble, even if the baby is part super. Clark didn't start getting his powers until he was somewhat older, remember?
I think this is an area that one can really use artistic license with, as long as it is based on science. You could go with the fact that Clark didn't have his powers until he was older, so the baby wouldn't have superpowers, but you could also look at it from a genetic point of view. If CLark's genes were close enough to Lois's to allow an egg to be fertilized in the first place, who's to say that the baby will even have superpowers at all? Then again, who's to say the baby won't have superpowers and that Lois won't be somehow affected by them? I think it is all based on how you think the superpower genes are transferred -- are they dominant or recessive? Are they parts of other genes? Are they completely different chromosomes that a Kryptonian has? Are they mutations of a human gene?
I think this is a big question that does not have a definitive answer. I tend to believe that the baby won't be superpowered, but I also think it is up to the author's discression as long as you can come up with a scientifically plausible explanation.
- Laura
