History Main / ImperiledInPregnancy

* ''Literature/TheCrocodileGod'' has one of the rare times that the peril ''actually'' happens. When the Tagalog sea-god Haik meets his mortal wife Mirasol's Spanish employer in the colonial Philippines, their attempt to pass Haik off as another mortal goes wrong due to [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome his extremely NON-Catholic tattoos,]] and the Spaniard shoots Mirasol in the stomach--so the enraged Haik [[HulkOut hulks out]] into a [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile massive crocodile]] and ''[[PrimalFear eats him]].'' While Haik heals Mirasol, [[TragicStillbirth their daughter is stillborn.]] Mirasol eventually reincarnates into a modern-day woman, but Haik remains traumatized for centuries--not only was this a personal loss of a child, the Spaniard committed ''[[KillTheGod Deicide]]'' and so clinched the DeathOfTheOldGods.

* One of the HeadlessHorseman's victims in ''Film/SleepyHollow1999''. Her unborn child gets decapitated as well.

* The diary of Creator/MurasakiShikibu includes preparations for the Empress Shōshi imminent delivery of her first child. Everyone is very on edge, believing the dangers of pregnancy are caused by evil spirits, and have set up all sorts of defenses against them. There are hordes of priests constantly praying, various rituals being enacted night and day, as well as other women pretending to be in labor as decoys. When the Empress births a son with no issues there are several days of celebrations.

* The diary of Creator/MurasakiShikibu includes preparations for the Empress Akihito's imminent delivery of her first child. Everyone is very on edge, believing the dangers of pregnancy are caused by evil spirits, and have set up all sorts of defenses against them. There are hordes of priests constantly praying, various rituals being enacted night and day, as well as other women pretending to be in labor as decoys. When the Empress births a son with no issues there are several days of celebrations.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfDorsa'': Tasia goes on the campaign with her troops while pregnant, getting stabbed in the belly by one of her own guards who an enemy mind controls into attacking her.

** The prologue of ''Underworld: Awakening'' has Selene getting captured by human (actually lycans in disguise) scientists and placed in suspended animation; during the interim between this and when she wakes up, it's discovered that she was pregnant with her and Michael's child at the time.
** In ''Underworld: Blood Wars'', it's revealed that vampire Elder Amelia took refuge with the Nordic coven while pregnant with her and Thomas's son, Simon, to keep Viktor from having them all killed as he would have seen this as a threat to his power and position as the leading Elder. Considering Viktor had his own pregnant daughter executed for similar reasons (see above), it was a wise move.

* The pregnant Assassins in Creator/AAPessimal's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11536013/1/Hyperemesis-gravidarum Hyperemesis Gravidarum]] have got more to contend with than sore feet and morning sickness. At least one of them is on the hit-list of a murder gang bent on vengeance against her and her wider family. The battle goes to the wire.

* In the ''Witcher'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Red Rowan}}'', a pregnant Shani ends up being the focus of an apparent curse, one which makes her - and her unborn child - the target of attack by magic-users. The only way this can be lifted is if Geralt performs a series of (seemingly impossible) tasks for Gaunter O'Dimm, enough to satisfy him into lifting the bounty before Shani's child is due to be born.

* In the French horror movie ''Film/{{Inside}}'', a pregnant woman is attacked by a stranger who wants to steal her baby. With scissors. [[HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday During Christmas Eve]].

* ''Film/TheTheatreBizarre'': In "Vision Stains", The Writer attacks a pregnant woman and draws fluid from her womb [[PlayingwithSyringes with a syringe]] in an attempt to find out what an unborn child sees.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E11FridaysChild}} Friday's Child]]", a usurper named Ma'ab kills Aka'ar, the Teer (tribal king), in an attempted coup. He then demands Aka'ar's pregnant wife Eleen and her unborn son killed, as the unborn son is the true heir of succession, and Kirk, Spock and [=McCoy=] have to go on the run with Eleen to keep her safe.

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E25BodyParts}} Body Parts]]" Keiko O'Brien is badly injured in a shuttle accident, and Dr. Bashir is forced to transplant the unborn Kirayoshi O'Brien into Kira Nerys, the only other female present. In this case it was an EnforcedTrope: In real life, Creator/NanaVisitor (Kira) was married to Creator/AlexanderSiddig (Bashir) and had gotten pregnant with his baby, and rather than find some way to HideYourPregnancy they [[WrittenInInfirmity wrote it into the script]].
** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E11TheDarknessAndTheLight}} The Darkness and the Light]]" a SerialKiller targets the surviving members of Kira's old [[LaResistance Bajoran resistance]] cell, eventually luring the very pregnant Kira to his hideout, stunning her, and then attempting to cut Kirayoshi out of her (the intent was to save the innocent baby and take revenge on Kira). She manages to [[PregnantBadass turn the tables and shoot him.]]

** In another episode, Teyla is using her limited psychic skills gained from her Wraith DNA to temporarily [[PeoplePuppets People Puppet]] a particularly strong Wraith Queen, who are the psychic heavyweights of their vampiric race. Trapped in her own mind, the Queen wonders how Teyla is suddenly so strong that she could pose a challenge for her until she realizes that Teyla's unborn son is helping her, and the Queen nearly kills the child in return with her mental powers before Teyla has Sheppard shoot her.

* The [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything carnivore supremacy]] terrorist group N.O.P.E. end up turning their attacks on the pregnant Lindesfarne Dewclaw in ''WebComic/KevinAndKell'' after the termite she spared because she was full ratted them out. It doesn't help that she's an insectivore and was expecting a half-hedgehog, half-bat [[spoiler: who technically has some human ancestry too. Long story]].

* Riley in ''Series/Sense8'' has several flashbacks throughout the first season where she relives the tragic car accident that took her husband's life while she was in labor. She had to have her baby in a turned upside down car, during a snow storm, with her husband's corpse lay next to her. [[spoiler:The baby then dies of exposure to the Icelandic winter while Riley is trying to hike them to safety.]]

** In another episode, Teyla is using her limited psychic skills gained from her Wraith DNA to temporarily mind control a particularly strong Wraith Queen, who are the psychic heavyweights of the vampiric race. Trapped in her own mind, the Queen wonders how Teyla is suddenly so strong that she could pose a challenge for her until she realizes that Teyla's unborn son is helping her, and the Queen nearly kills the child in return.

** Daenerys is imperiled multiple times during her pregnancy, first by her brother, which completely breaks their tenuous familial bond and later by a wine merchant who seeks to poison her.

* ''Series/TheWheelOfTime'': Aiel woman [[spoiler:Tigraine]], while full term, manages to fight multiple men before being stabbed in the side. She nonetheless gives birth to her son [[spoiler:(Rand)]], who is unharmed, before dying.
* ''Series/{{LOST}}'':

* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames: Catching Fire'', while Katniss wasn't actually pregnant, Peeta manages to enrage the capitol citizens by claiming that she was right before the 75th Games started, trying to invoke this trope.
** Possibly Annie when she was held captive and tortured by the Capitol in ''Mockingjay'', since we don't know when her and Finnick's child was conceived.
* ''Literature/{{Barrayar}}'':

* ''{{Literature/Twilight}}'': In both the novel and film versions of ''Breaking Dawn'', Bella suffers some very ''traumatic'' life-threatening complications while pregnant/giving birth to her daughter, Renesmee, due to the child being half-vampire and Edward has to quickly turn Bella in order for her to survive her injuries.

* '''' uses this a later plot twist: it turns out that [[spoiler:Kazuki's wife Yuzuko, who is hinted to be alive but separated from him because of his hitman job at the beginning of the series,]] died while pregnant.

* The pilot of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' had a heavily pregnant woman named Catalina on the run with a man wanted for drug smuggling, with the police in hot pursuit. [[spoiler:When the two are gunned down, the belly turns out to be [[PillowPregnancy a huge bundle of Red Eye spray canisters]]]].

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'':

A SuperTrope to PregnantHostage. Compare TraumaticCSection and WombHorror. May involve a MaternityCrisis if the child chooses that exact moment to come into the world, or alternatively a ConvenientMiscarriage, ForcedMiscarriage, or TragicStillbirth if child is lost as a result. Can also result in BornFromADeadWoman or DeathByChildbirth if the ''mother'' dies as a result, but the child survives. Often the intersection of WouldHurtAChild and WouldHitAGirl. Overlaps with PregnantBadass if the pregnant woman is an ActionGirl who extracts herself from the peril and BabyAsPayment, if the woman is trapped until she gives birth so that she is forced to uphold her end of the bargain.

* In an accidental case, [[https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2553378&page=1 Rose Bard]], a fishing boat technician, was horribly injured in a freak accident (a piece of machinery activated while she was cleaning it) just hours after learning she was pregnant. Bard ended up losing both of her legs but survived, and her baby was born healthy seven months later, having miraculously suffered no ill effects from his mother's ordeal.