History Main / LongestPregnancyEver

* UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} founder Laozi is said to have been born after ''seventy or eighty years'' in his mother's womb, hence his name (it literally means "old child)."

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', [[spoiler:Ursa Zod was pregnant with her and General Zod's son Lor-Zod when they were sentenced to the Phantom Zone before Krypton's destruction. As no one ages in the Phantom Zone, Lor-Zod remained a fetus for over a thousand years until the prisoners are freed by the United Planets, where he was finally born on Daxam in the 31st century]].

* ''Manhua/FengShenJi'': The gods of the series age slowly. Kong Que, leader of the rebel gods, was pregnant for 18 months before having her son. Sir Li Jing, a human aristocrat, says his mysterious wife had been pregnant for two years before his son was born. Strangely, Li's wife was presumably human, too.

* An ''Series/{{Absolutely}}'' sketch involving recurring characters Denzil and Gwynedd had Gwynedd revealing she was ''17 years'' pregnant.

* '''Abnormally-Long Pregnancy:''' The pregnancy explicitly lasts longer than the normal nine months. Obviously this is [[PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay not how it works]] in RealLife, but in fiction there may be reasons for it: a MysticalPregnancy, BizarreAlienBiology, a HalfHumanHybrid, FunctionalMagic, the [[TimeyWimeyBall flow of time turning weird]], or other extraordinary circumstances. If this is framed as unnatural, hideous, or dangerous, it probably overlaps with WombHorror or FetusTerrible. If it is safe and natural within the setting, it is not terrifying, though it may be tedious for the expectant mother.

* The pre-ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}} Jesse Quick was revealed to be pregnant shortly before her timeline was rebooted. ''[[ComicBook/{{Convergence}} Convergence: Justice League #1]]'' opens with Supergirl bringing her to the hospital and Jesse giving birth to a healthy baby. Keep in mind, the reveal that she was pregnant was ''four years ago'' although this is somewhat subverted since she'd originally been erased from the DC Universe.

* ''ComicBook/StarTrekDebtOfHonor'': The stardate given puts the main action in 2289, but it also seems to take place in the same year as the Gillian Taylor scenes, during which Gracie the whale births the first humpback whale calf to be born on Earth in two centuries. ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|TheVoyageHome}}'' takes place in 2284, but a humpback whale's gestation period is only 11 months. So somebody done goofed. [[note]]In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' stardates were inconsistent ''at best'', but by ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' (which had completed its fifth season when this comic was published) they had been nailed down significantly more.[[/note]]

* [[WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution Nightcrawler/Kurt's]] [[MisterSeahorse pregnancy]] in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1471639/1/Nightcrawler-s-Burden Nightcrawler's Burden]]'' is supposed to last for the usual nine months, yet each month takes up at least six chapters on average. Add to the fact that the last posted chapter was sometime in the second trimester, and that it hasn't been updated for '''[[DeadFic over 10 years]]''', makes it one of the slowest fanfiction pregnancies.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* Averted in ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', where Flynn tells Amos that no one will believe Roxie's child is his because a jury "can count to nine. Can you count to nine?"

* On ''Series/{{Insecure}}'', Tiffany first is revealed to be pregnant in season 2, has a baby shower halfway through season 3, and doesn't actually give birth until season 4. The show isn't exact on times, but it's implied at least a month or multiple months pass between seasons (not to mention the months that pass during the season itself).

* On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', Daya became pregnant in the middle of the first season and gave birth in the third season, which was released two years later. However, the in-series timespan is only a few months.

* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}''

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', this is discussed: the (now dead) son of Lucrezia and Bill is named Klaus, after Bill's best friend who disappeared, who was also Lucrezia's lover before she married Bill. As Carson von Mekkhan takes pains to point out, he was born two years and three months after Klaus Wulfenbach's disappearance. Apparently half of Europa is still of the belief that he was Klaus and Lucrezia's child.
--> '''Carson:''' You'd be ''amazed'' how many people ''ignore'' the ''math!''
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Kazumi Kato has been pregnant since [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0501.html strip 500]] (published in 2007) and was still pregnant as of [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0672.html strip 672]] (published in 2009). She shows up again in the print-only book ''Good Deeds Gone Unpunished'' (published 2018)...still pregnant. In-story it's been an unknown number of months, but probably between 6 and 8.
* ''Webcomic/SabrinaOnline'': Amy was pregnant with her son Timmy from February 1997 to January 2000.

* In ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'', Flora has been pregnant since 2006 (Flora, herself, has only been aware since 2010). As of 2023, she's showing in earnest and has come clean with Trace (the father). This is another case of chronic WebcomicTime since only a few weeks have passed in-universe.

* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'': Sue Murphy is pregnant for at least two seasons, starting at the end of Season 2. She does not give birth until the Season 4 finale.

!!Examples of Abnormally-Long Pregnancy:

* In ''ComicBook/{{Lanfeust}}'', The Queen of Darshan has been pregnant for 15 months when first seen. Discovering the reason for the unusual length is a minor plot point. [[spoiler:The culprit is the darshanide Goddess of Pleasure, who wanted to punish the King for not giving the Queen an orgasm when conceiving the baby. The moment the heroes confront the goddess and mention that the Queen is the one truly suffering, she lifts the curse and [[InstantBirthJustAddLabor the Queen instantly gives birth to a son]].]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* ''Film/BasketCase2''
-->'''Susan:''' I'm pregnant... And have been for the last six years.
* A 2005 Japanese film whose title translates as either "Three Year Pregnant" or "Three Year Delivery" revolves around a pregnant YamatoNadeshiko protagonist who refuses to give birth whilst her family is still locked in turmoil and strife. It's not until they resolve everything, three years later, that she finally gives birth.

* ''Literature/TheCulture'': In ''Literature/{{Excession}}'' a character delays her baby's birth due to feeling conflicted about the father; she is heavily pregnant for 40 years.

* ''Literature/CruelIllusions'': The pregnancy of Ava's mother lasts centuries, as she was pregnant with Ava before becoming immortal. Becoming immortal in the series causes biological functions to freeze, hence she became trapped like that for centuries. She was only able to give birth to Ava in the present day after becoming mortal once more.

* ''Literature/FengshenYanyi'' or ''Investiture of the Gods'' has the birth of Nezha, who according to the story spends 3 years and 9 months in his mother's womb, due to his magical nature.
* In ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', A side effect of the early anti-aging treatment is extended pregnancies, typically about 11 months. Later versions of the treatment have normal term pregnancies.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': in the ''Literature/DarkNestTrilogy'', Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo is pregnant by Jacen Solo (son of Leia and Han) and, to avoid any rumours that he is the father, she uses the Force to artificially lengthen out the pregnancy to one year.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': ZigZagged. Aeryn's species, Sebaceans, have the ability to effectively put a pregnancy into suspended animation early on. Since they're a [[spoiler:genetically engineered from proto-humans]] ProudWarriorRace, this comes in handy as a female can get pregnant on-mission, hit the biological pause button, finish the mission, return home and gestate normally. The pregnancy can be held in stasis for up to seven years. However, once it's fully going it [[ExpressDelivery only takes days]].

* ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'': Due to a combination of factors, [[spoiler:Henry]]'s pregnant girlfriend can't give birth without a huge risk to herself. Magnus figures out a way to reduce this risk by slowing the development of the fetus, but it also means she will be pregnant for a little under two years.

* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' fan sourcebook, ''The Book of Erotic Fantasy'', gives details on the subject of reproduction for all the major player races, noting that elves have a gestation period of fully two years. It takes its inspiration from the long lifespans accorded to elves, dwarves, and gnomes, particularly how elves are said to be considered children for the first sixty years of their life in 2nd edition. It's a non-canon sourcebook, however, and there is no concrete answer given for how long such races actually carry for.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'': At the end [[spoiler:it is noted that Ena gives birth to Rajaion's child, despite no pregnancy being mentioned before.]] The father in question had died ''three years prior'', and the mother had presumably been kept away from him for at least an additional year besides. She also mentions that he had left their homeland 19 years before the climax of [=FE9=], and the condition he was in when she was near him after that left her getting pregnant then... unlikely, to say the least. A slight twist in that [[spoiler: both Ena and Rajaion are Dragon Laguz]], and while this isn't explicitly shown to happen with any other [[spoiler:dragon laguz]] they are notoriously long-lived (the paternal grandfather, [[spoiler:Dheginsea]], is known to be at the very least in his ninth ''century'' of life and doesn't look particularly ancient), so it's possible, although this does raise questions about the pregnancy of the child's paternal aunt [[spoiler: Almedha]], which was by all accounts not nearly as long. [[note]]To be fair, said paternal aunt [[spoiler: consorted with a human and not with a Dragon, so their child was a HalfHumanHybrid.]][[/note]]
* {{Exaggerated}} in ''VideoGame/KingsRaid''. [[spoiler: TheHero Kasel is the illegitimate son of Kyle, the king of Orvelia, and his lover Arlette, except he was conceived ''roughly a hundred years'' before the start of the story; After freezing Arlette for a long time, [[AnIcePerson Pavel]] later teleported Kasel who was still inside Arlette's womb outside.]] All of this resulted in Kasel becoming another threat to the ambitions of the nobles who are already trying to kill Scarlet, the crown princess of Orvelia and the only other surviving descendant of king Kyle.

* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'', in the Telltale Games, has Sybil Pandemik. Her [[spoiler:[[HalfHumanHybrid half-golem]]]] baby isn't born until the end of the fifth episode of season 3, by which point she's a month into her fifth trimester. In other words, 15 months of being pregnant. When her water breaks, she "releases" pennies, to the confusion of the other characters.

* One ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' strip highlighted mortals tempting the gods into [[DivineParentage impregnating them]]. One of them was a woman that had carried the child of [[OddJobGods the god of procrastination]] for over four years.

* The National Partnership for Women and Families is an American advocacy group. To support paid family leave policies, they produced [[https://youtu.be/7GtFwdLpNTo?t=12 this]] short {{Mockumentary}}. Lauren is a successful professional, but cannot get time off to give birth, so she continues working despite being an absurd 260 weeks pregnant. While she attempts a normal day at the office, straining to maneuver and work around her impossibly-gigantic belly, the narration presents its political message.

* From the ShallowNewsSiteSatire Website/{{Reductress}}:

SubTrope of PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay. Contrast ExpressDelivery.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A mother can easily ''feel'' this way about her own pregnancy, as many parents know. The awkwardness and discomfort of the third trimester might make the experience ''seem'' like ComicBookTime from her very-pregnant perspective. But this is entirely subjective, thankfully.
** A doctor will assess a due date for a pregnant patient, but this is only a rough estimate. The date is calculated from the end of the last menstrual period, not the presumed date of conception, which typically adds another two weeks to the pregnancy's duration. Approximately 40% of pregnant mothers go past their estimated due date, and 5% exceed it by two weeks or more.
** It is possible for pregnancy to last longer than the normal 40 weeks, but this brings complications and risks. The placenta eventually degrades and loses its efficiency, depriving the fetus of oxygen and nutrition. If the fetus grows too large, a difficult passage through the birth canal can endanger the lives of it and the mother unless it is delivered by caesarean-section. For these reasons, many physicians consider it unsafe for pregnant patients to carry longer than 42 weeks and recommend inducing labor at this point.
** The longest human pregnancy on record lasted 375 days instead of the standard 280. This fetus had abnormally slow development.
** One hypothesis proposes a human pregnancy ''should'' last about 18 months and that every baby is effectively premature. Compared to other animals, we have [[MyBrainIsBig oversized brains and skulls]] that can barely pass through the birth canal, and being born early is the only way to avoid [[DeathByChildbirth killing our mothers]] in the process. This would explain why humans are downright helpless compared to other primates soon after birth.
* Although rare, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithopedion "stone babies"]] or ''lithopedia'' are well-documented phenomena. They usually happen when a fertilized egg attaches ''outside'' of the uterus (though they can happen inside it, too), and when the fetus dies it is too big to be reabsorbed or expelled from the mother's body. Calcification is a means of protecting the mother from infection or hemorrhage.
** [[http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/03/04/4380061-the-curious-case-of-the-stone-baby An article]] examines a case of this in recent history. A woman miscarried the almost full-term baby and never passed it from her system. The fetus calcified and remained in her womb for ''decades'' before doctors removed it.
* Animals:
** An elephant fetus takes two years to gestate.
** A number of animals are capable of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_implantation delayed implantation.]] For example, the nine-banded armadillo delays for about the same amount of time it takes to gestate (four months).
** While not extremely long, horses are pregnant for about a year. The same would apply to other hoofed animals that can walk after birth, like camels (13 or 15 months), donkeys (11-14 months), llamas (10 months), tapirs (13 months), zebras (12 or 13 months), and giraffes and okapis (15 months).
** White Rhinos are pregnant for about a year and a half (16-18 months), while two other species, the white and Indian rhinos have about 15 or 16 months.
** Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, etc) have pregnancies of about 11 months to a year. Similarly, other sea life do the same, as manatee pregnancies are about 13 months and pinniped (seals and walruses) pregnancies about the same length as cetacean ones.
** Velvet worms carry their babies for 15 months
** Black alpine salamanders are pregnant for 2-3 years.
** The frilled shark has the longest gestation time of any known vertebrate animal, with a pregnancy of ''3.5 years''. A very long development time makes sense for an animal that lives in the nutrient-poor oceanic abyss.
* Creator/JackieChan himself stated that he was in his mother's womb for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_8GDN6Zfy TWELVE MONTHS.]]
* One of the aspects of the MaliciousSlander spread about UsefulNotes/RichardIII after [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade his defeat at the battle of Bosworth]] was that his mother was pregnant with him for ''two years'', and when he was finally born, he was a monstrously huge child with a full set of fanglike teeth and hair down to his (hunchbacked, according to the stories) shoulders. This is particularly ironic given that he was in fact born so small and sickly that it's quite possible he was mildly premature.
* In August 2016, [[https://www.aol.com/article/2016/08/22/chinese-woman-gives-birth-after-claiming-17-month-long-pregnancy/21456677/ a Chinese woman named Wang Shi]] claimed to have been pregnant for 17 months. This claim was unable to be verified as she did not submit to ultrasounds.
* In a {{Downplayed}} example, Creator/RayBradbury noted that he was the result of a 10-month pregnancy, which is not terribly outlandish.[[note]]Pregnancies going on up to three weeks past their due date aren't actually uncommon, and since Bradbury was born in 1920 when pre-natal care wasn't as thorough or accurate as it is today, it's entirely possible that his parents' estimates were off by a week or two.[[/note]] Somewhat more curiously, he claimed that the extra month in the womb allowed him to develop mentally to the point where he could remember his entire life ''from the moment of birth''.
[[/folder]]

* [[WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution Nightcrawler/Kurt's]] [[MisterSeahorse pregnancy]] in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1471639/1/Nightcrawler-s-Burden Nightcrawler's Burden]]'' is supposed to last for the usual nine months, yet each month takes up at least six chapters on average. Add to the fact that the last posted chapter was sometime in the second trimester, and that it hasn’t been updated for '''[[DeadFic over 10 years]]''', makes it one of slowest fanfiction pregnancies.

* From the ShallowNewsSiteSatire Reductress:

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Hippolyta Hall stays pregnant for about two years while trapped in a dream/nightmare with her dead husband Hector, and only gives birth once Dream releases her. The {{Meta}} element to this is that Hippolyta and Hector were C-list DC heroes from the '80s comic ''ComicBook/InfinityInc'', and she was pregnant at the point that the series was canceled in 1988. If Creator/NeilGaiman hadn't appropriated the characters, she could conceivably have been pregnant indefinitely while not being featured in any comic.

* In ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'', Flora has been pregnant since 2006 (Flora, herself, has only been aware since 2010). As of June 2013, she's showing in earnest and has come clean with Trace (the father). This is another case of chronic WebcomicTime since only a few weeks have passed in-universe.

In RealLife, pregnancy lasts approximately nine months, give or take a couple weeks. The body's endocrine system has an incredible ability to regulate it and (with few exceptions) the duration of gestation is remarkably consistent.

* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': Mandy's pregnancy starts in March or April 1992. In January 1993, she is still pregnant, and based on the size of her baby bump, she still has three more months before giving birth. An explanation of these dates is given on the Timeline/YoungSheldon page.

* '''Abnormally-Long Pregnancy:''' The pregnancy explicitly lasts longer than the normal nine months. Obviously this is [[PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay not how it works]] in RealLife, but in fiction there may be for it: a MysticalPregnancy, BizarreAlienBiology, a HalfHumanHybrid, FunctionalMagic, the [[TimeyWimeyBall flow of time turning weird]], or other extraordinary circumstances. If this is framed as unnatural, hideous, or dangerous, it probably overlaps with WombHorror or FetusTerrible. If it is safe and natural within the setting, it is not terrifying, though it may be tedious for the expectant mother.

SubTrope of PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay. [[OppositeTropes Contrast with]] ExpressDelivery.

* Dana Scully's pregnancy in the eighth season of ''Series/TheXFiles'' seems to have lasted about a year, going by the dates.

In media, this is not necessarily so. The process of pregnancy and birth can be abbreviated -- or skipped over entirely. The pregnancy can also be drawn-out longer than the standard nine months. There are two reasons for this:

* '''Decompressed Storytelling:''' In some media, the events of one day may take months or years to unfold. As a consequence, pregnancies that ostensibly last the standard nine months instead seem like they extend much longer. ComicBookTime and WebcomicTime can make a pregnancy last years in real time; even the creators (let alone the readers) may be unsure how far along a woman is supposed to be in her pregnancy. A ScheduleSlip can aggravate things further. This trope can sometimes lead to OffscreenInertia if we never see the woman deliver [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome or see her again]]. It can be {{Lampshaded}} or used as a RunningGag: the pregnant character may [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Lean on the Fourth Wall]] by complaining that she feels like she has carried this baby for ages.

* '''Abnormally-Long Pregnancy:''' The pregnancy is really meant to last longer than the natural nine months. Obviously this is [[PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay not how it works]] in RealLife, but in fiction there may be reasons for this: a MysticalPregnancy, BizarreAlienBiology, a fetus that is a HalfHumanHybrid, a FetusTerrible, FunctionalMagic, or other extraordinary circumstances.

* ''Webcomic/OlympicDames'', where the four girls became heavily pregnant overnight due to supernatural meddling, but are stuck there for what feels like forever sue to the inexorable demands of plot and ComicBookTime.

* ''Webcomic/SisterClaire'': Claire's been pregnant for the whole comic, starting in 2008; stretched out via {{ScheduleSlip}}s combined with WebcomicTime.[[note]]Then came the WhamEpisode in late 2015 that revealed that she was never actually pregnant at all.[[/note]]