Lori’s whole orientation organizes itself around Carl, her son, and protecting him. She attempts to protect not only his physical being, but his innocence and intuition as he grows up in a post-apocalyptic world. She serves as the group’s moral arbiter and often sermonizes that it’s not enough to just remain alive and avoid being eaten; they have to retain their humanity and rituals that make them human – “there are others, it’s not just us.”
Believing Rick, her husband, to be dead, she flees with Shane and Carl to Atlanta. Having been told by Shane that Rick was dead, she becomes furious and warns Shane to stay away from her family. She had become pregnant during her affair with Shane, but the paternity of the child is unknown (“No matter what, you’re the father,” she tells Rick”). Afraid of introducing her baby into such a world, Lori desperately swallows morning-after pills but throws them up immediately and confesses her infidelity to Rick.
Lori goes into labor after a hoard of walkers infiltrate a prison, their new safe-haven, and hemorrhages.