PT What would have happened if Padme did not die after giving birth to her children?

If Sidious ever got suspicions regarding Anakin's children, he might try to force information out of them. Or if they couldn't resist the urge to go visit their grandchildren, this might even give Sidious the suspicions in the first place. So the safest bet is to keep them ignorant about the children.

 

Well, had Padme lived a bit longer then people would not have argued concerning Leia's lines in ROTJ about images and feelings as there would have been more time for them.
I'm not sure she would have separated them, but to what destination she would have used to raise them I cannot even speculate. At some point, she may have tried to meet Vader as per her line, "There is still good in him."

 

I suspect she would probably join Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in initiating the Rebellion.
It’s been a long time since I read it, but I think in the novelization of TPM, young Anakin has a dream about an angel fighting against him or leading forces against him and is perturbed by that. Maybe that was a storyline that was being considered for the films early on that was scrapped?

 

How do we know she wasn't hiding inside R2 this whole time?

 

Padme should've lived with a brief scene of a Bounty Hunter viewing a hologram of his next target, who happens to be her. She would've kept Leia, while leaving Luke with family, expecting it to be just a temporary situation for safety reasons, til she got herself figured out.