History Main / PregnantHostage

* Salvo from ''Webcomic/{{Archipelago}}'' was already doing his best up to that point to define himself as a JerkAss. [[http://archipelagocomic.com/comic/?id=611 Taking Deliza hostage]] proved that he had crossed the MoralEventHorizon.

* The [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_View_Hospital_hostage_incident Alta View incident]], in which a vengeful man took a maternity ward hostage. Fortunately, there was only one patient present, and even more luckily, she wasn't harmed.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}},'' Pre-Flashpoint ComicBook/LoisLane is pregnant with {{Superman}}'s child ([[LawOfInverseFertility which would normally be impossible]]), only to be captured by his counterpart from the ''{{Comicbook/Flashpoint}}'' universe, who's slightly crazy after watching the Lois from his world die.

* [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] in 'Series/{{Snowpiercer}}'. When [[spoiler:Layton decides to steal the engine and depart on the Pirate Train, Zarah]] chooses to stay behind on the main train depsite [[spoiler: Wilford's presence]] to have all the medical care she and the baby need, counting on the leverage that a pregnancy gives aboard Snowpiercer to ensure her own safety from [[spoiler: Wilford]]. It is [[spoiler:Layton who [[IHaveYourWife takes Miss Audrey hostage]] to make sure Wilford won't harm Zarah or any other passenger]]. However, when [[spoiler:the Pirate Train comes back and attacks the Great Ark Train, Wilford does summon Zarah to Big Alice's engine car as a deterrent against Layton attacking him directly. [[HositedByHisOwnPetard And it backfires]]!]]

* [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] in ''Series/{{Snowpiercer}}. When [[spoiler:Layton decides to steal the engine and depart on the Pirate Train, Zarah]] chooses to stay behind on the main train depsite [[spoiler: Wilford's presence]] to have all the medical care she and the baby need, counting on the leverage that a pregnancy gives aboard Snowpiercer to ensure her own safety from [[spoiler: Wilford]]. It is [[spoiler:Layton who [[IHaveYourWife takes Miss Audrey hostage]] to make sure Wilford won't harm Zarah or any other passenger]]. However, when [[spoiler:the Pirate Train comes back and attacks the Great Ark Train, Wilford does summon Zarah to Big Alice's engine car as a deterrent against Layton attacking him directly. [[HositedByHisOwnPetard And it backfires]]!]]

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Riptide}}'' (1984-1986), a young woman is kidnapped for ransom just after she learns that she's pregnant.[[spoiler: The kidnapper is the father of her unborn child.]]

Either way, expect her to be the first one let go if the authorities arrange the release of some hostages as a sign of good faith, and additionally most hostage-takers know it's usually not in their favor to have such a possibly [[InstantBirthJustAddWater high maintenance]] hostage.

One of the lesser known risks of pregnancy.

It seems to be a law of TV and film land, that any hostage situation will include at least one [[ObviousPregnancy heavily pregnant woman]]. This can either be used to show how inhuman the hostage takers are by having them [[KickTheDog use her as greater leverage]], or to show them in a better light by [[PetTheDog having them treat her with compassion]]. If she's more than eight months, she'll probably go into labor, and give birth to a healthy baby with the help of a nearby know-it-all kid, [[ChekhovsHobby med-school dropout]] or, if they're really lucky, an off-duty nurse. Or maybe even [[DeliveryGuy one of the hostage takers]]. The PanickyExpectantFather will rarely be held hostage with her, and may even be with the police, constantly telling them, "My Wife's in there!".

Either way, expect her to be the first one let go if the authorities arrange the release of some hostages as a sign of good faith, and additionally most hostage takers know it's usually not in their favor to have such a possibly [[InstantBirthJustAddWater high maintenance]] hostage.

* A particularly nasty version happens in ''Manga/AirGear'', where [[spoiler: the kidnapper of the PregnantBadass Rika Noyamano is ''her ex-boyfriend and the baby's father'', Sora Takeuchi, who goes as far as ''brainwashing'' poor Rika to force her fight the protagonists.]]
* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Jackal gives Lucy a SadisticChoice over whose life she should save--an old councilor she's been assigned to bodyguard, or a pregnant bystander--or else both will die. The panicking councilor rants that of course his own life is more important since killing him ''might'' [[BarrierMaiden trigger a dangerous superweapon]]. Thankfully, Natsu manages to save both hostages (and giving the councilor a well-deserved clobbering for good measure).

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In ''Grave Peril'', the Nightmare abducts Michael's heavily pregnant wife Charity. The stress and trauma of her rescue causes her to go into labour.
* Poor, poor 15 year old [[DarkChick Diana Ladris]] from ''[[Literature/{{GONE}} FEAR]]''. No one bothers trying to bail her out (or rather, they couldn't if they tried), either. And she's left to give birth in a scorching hot, pitch black mine with two psychopaths [[NightmareFuel who like to torture her.]] Fans of the character were reasonably miffed.

* ''Literature/SixOfCrows'': Alys, briefly, in ''Crooked Kingdom''. In this case it's not the ''wife'' who matters; Jan has made very clear how much he cares for his new heir, with Alys being a means to that end.

* Enforced and Invoked in ''Series/DoctorWho'', when Amy was abducted by the Silence and forced to give birth in their custody for the exact reason that she was pregnant. Specifically, her baby was conceived in the Time Vortex, and thus has the ability to regenerate like a Time Lord.

* ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'': In season 3 the team pretend to be bank robbers and hold everyone hostage because one person is carrying an Abnormal parasite. One hostage is believed to be the host, but instead is revealed to be pregnant. Later she is the first hostage released.

* ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'': In "The Aristo", Modesty and Willie are rescued by a freighter after their plane crashes at sea. When the ship is attacked by RuthlessModernPirates, Modesty arranges for herself and the captain's pregnant wife Jo to be taken hostage by the pirates: with Modesty persuading the pirates that Jo is noblewoman worth a lot in ransom to prevent the pirates from harming her.

* In the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' DLC "Legacy" it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Grey Wardens used Hawke's mother (pregnant with Hawke at the time) as this to force her husband Malcolm to reinforce the wards on [[HumanoidAbomination Corypheus']] prison to keep the Darkspawn Magister from escaping. Though the Grey Wardens kept their word and returned Leandra Hawke unharmed, Hawke is understandably ''furious'' that they threatened both their mother's and their own lives, so much so that the Grey Wardens using Blood Magic again in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' becomes a BerserkButton for the Champion no matter what Hawke's personality is]].

* Quebecois WebOriginal [[http://www.tac.tv/the_hostage_vid981 ''Tete a claques'']] had this as the main subject of one of its sketches. Played entirely for comedy. Both the cops and the criminal assume the woman is pregnant, she's just fat. She gets offended at being called pregnant despite her numerous protests, and proceeds to slug the criminal before beating up the cops.

* Enforced and Invoked in ''Series/DoctorWho'', when Amy was taken for the exact reason that she was pregnant.

* Inforced and Envoked in ''Series/DoctorWho'', when Amy was taken for the exact reason that she was pregnant.

* In the "Backscatter" episode of ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'', one of the hostages was pregnant.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In "Cops and Robbers" one of the bank tellers in the bank that Castle and his mother are unlucky enough to be in when it gets held up is pregnant. She doesn't go into labor or have any kind of risky pregnancy from what we see, however. [[spoiler: Castle does use her pregnancy as an excuse to go to a couch by the windows, however, ostensibly to get her pillows to sit up on but actually because he has a message he wants to get to the cops outside.]]
* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': In "Randy in Charge (...of Our Days and Our Nights)," Earl has to point out to Frank that the very pregnant Joy makes the perfect hostage for a hostage situation.
* Unknown to her, Amaka is pregnant when she's held hostage by the baby's father in ''Series/{{Tinsel}}''.
* {{Invoked}} by the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' team when they get locked inside a patent office with the aid of a device for expectant fathers to "share the pain." Of course, this being ''Leverage'', [[BavarianFiredrill there is no actual hostage situation]].
* Used in the '70's TV series ''Series/TheRookies''. The pregnant hostage was played by ''Tyne Daly'', who, at that time, was married to series star ''Georg Stanford Brown''.
* In ''Series/TheDeadZone'', Sarah is kidnapped during the early stages of pregnancy. This isn't revealed to the audience (or her family) until after she is rescued, though.
* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': Jamie Berglund in "The Life Inside." When Raylan and Tim storm the hideout, he holds a gun to her belly and threatens to shoot.
* ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'': In season 3 the team pretend to be bank robbers and hold everyone hostage because one person is carrying an Abnormal parasite. One hostage is believed to be the host, but instead is revealed to be pregnant. Later she is the first hostage released.
* Inforced and Envoked in ''Series/DoctorWho'', when Amy was taken for the exact reason that she was pregnant.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Riptide}}'' (1984-1986), a young woman is kidnapped for ransom just after she learns that she's pregnant.[[spoiler: The kidnapper is the father of her unborn child.]]

* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': Det. Mazur is briefly held hostage when a woman brings a bomb into the squad room in "The Dead Hand." Angie--who is the only one to know Mazur is pregnant--comes up with a plausible reason for her to be one of the first hostages released without divulging her pregnancy.
* In the ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' episode "The Hostages," a woman is kidnapped and held hostage shortly after finding she's pregnant. To make matters worse, she's already lost one baby, so she needs to be extra careful this time around.
* In the TV MovieOfTheWeek ''"[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_View_Hospital_hostage_incident Deliver Them From Evil: The Taking Of Alta View]]"'' (BasedOnATrueStory) has a man taking a maternity ward hostage (seeking vengeance against a doctor). Mercifully, only one patient is present, though she does fit the trope.

* Used hilariously in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD1X0hha68k ''Hostage'']], Creator/ZacharyQuinto, turns a hostage woman into a lifetime relationship, even through multiple pregnancies, and an affair.

* In the second issue of the 2011 series of ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'', it is revealed that the MacGuffin the Squad is sent into the stadium to retrieve is a pregnant woman. Although, this being ''Suicide Squad'', all is not as it seems.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}},'' Pre-Flashpoint ComicBook/LoisLane is pregnant with {{Superman}}'s child ([[LawOfInverseFertility which would normally be impossible]]), only to be captured by his counterpart from the ''{{Comicbook/Flashpoint}}'' universe, who's slightly crazy after watching the Lois from his world die.

* In the third leg of the Arcos Special of ''Fanfic/SaviorOfDemons'', the fact that [[NominalImportance the female Arcosian held in the prisoner ship isn't named in the story]] should be a red flag to [[{{Tearjerker}} her]] [[KickTheDog fate.]] The whole scene plays out, for both the readers and [[spoiler: [[BreakTheCutie Frieza]]]] as NightmareFuel and NauseaFuel [[{{Squick}} combined.]]

* In ''Film/TheWayOfTheGun'', Ryan Philippe and Benicio del Toro kidnap a heavily pregnant Creator/JulietteLewis. She's acting as surrogate mother to the man paying the ransom, having been impregnated with his child.

* In ''Film/InsideMan'', one of the hostages taken by the bank robbers and shuffled between rooms is a pregnant woman.
* In ''Film/HoldUp'', the bank robber Grimm takes, among other people, a pregnant woman with a baby carriage hostage. [[spoiler:Turns out that she's one of his accomplices, the pregnancy is faked to smuggle the money out of the bank in her false belly, and there isn't a baby in the carriage but even more money.]]
* Inverted in ''5 Branded Women'' where a pregnant Partisan captures a German hostage.
* ''Film/TheDeltaForce'' gives us an Arab hijacker who swears the Germans didn't kill enough Jews in World War II, pummels a sailor nearly to death with a chair's armrest, and flies off the handle when he sees an abandoned ring with Hebrew script on it, yet orders some hostages to vacate their seats so a pregnant hostage can recline. He even has the other hostages give up their pillows for her. Aaaawwwww.....
* Played with in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', as the central plot features Max driving an oil-rig where two of the group of five runaway women are pregnant, and they end up becoming ''his'' captors after he first threatens them with a gun and forces them to help him drive the rig. The women are the {{Breeding Slave}}s of the BigBad, meaning they're carrying his sons. This makes his soldiers reluctant to hurt them.

* In ''Literature/TheSacredArtOfStealing'', this trope is used to hint that the bank robbers [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse aren't the bad guys]]. They immediately set free any hostage who is pregnant or has a heart condition.

* In Steven Gould's ''Literature/{{Helm}}'', the post-climactic confrontation involves the desperate son of the villain choosing a pregnant girl from among 20 hostages and holding a dagger to her throat. But she's ''very'' pregnant--so much so that her water breaks during the showdown, startling the bad guy into a human reaction that momentarily shakes up his screw-em-all villainy.

* Poor, poor 15 year old [[DarkChick Diana Ladris]] from ''[[Literature/{{GONE}} FEAR]]''. No one bothers trying to bail her out (or rather, they couldn't if they tried), either. And she's left to give birth in a scorching hot, pitch black mine with two psychopaths [[NightmareFuel who like to torture her.]] Fans of the character were reasonably miffed.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In ''Grave Peril'', the Nightmare abducts Michael's heavily pregnant wife Charity. The stress and trauma of her rescue causes her to go into labour.
* Done somewhat differently in Literature/{{Discworld}}, in [[spoiler: ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', when the diplomatic carriage carrying the Ankh Morpork delegation to Bonk is ambushed by bandits in the pass. Sybil is briefly held hostage as a bargaining chip, but at this point, Sam Vimes has no idea that Sybil is pregnant, and frankly, Sybil is a bit of a {{Pregnant Badass}} about it, keeping her calm and ducking so her husband can shoot the bandit holding her, with a weapon she doesn't even know he has. She's actually trying (not for the first time) to get his attention long enough to gently break the news to him just before the ambush.]]
* ''Literature/SixOfCrows'': Alys, briefly, in ''Crooked Kingdom''. In this case it's not the ''wife'' who matters; Jan has made very clear how much he cares for his new heir, with Alys being a means to that end.

* In the ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' finale, the pregnant hostage is the reason for Nadira's HeelFaceTurn. The stress apparently sends the woman into labor, and Trip convinces/forces Nadira to help her give birth. Her amazement leads her to question her father's hatred of humans, and she attempts to protect a (different) baby from one of her father's attacks. The realization that he could have killed his daughter is what leads to BigBad Ransik's HeelFaceTurn.

* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'', the season 5 finale had Mac involved in a hostage situation in a bank. The first person he convinces the man to release is pregnant.
* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Teyla gets kidnapped while pregnant. Unusually for this trope, Teyla doesn't escape the hostage situation until after the baby is born (by design).
* The "Derailed" episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' had a pregnant hostage. An interesting twist though, as she was only a few weeks pregnant at the time and on her way to have an abortion. The events of the episode seem to point toward her changing her mind.

* [[spoiler:Janis Hawk]] in the finale of ''Series/FlashForward2009''.

* Done somewhat differently in Literature/{{Discworld}}, in [[spoiler: ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', when the diplomatic carriage carrying the Ankh Morpork delegation to Bonk is ambushed by bandits in the pass. Sybil is briefly held hostage as a bargaining chip, but at this point, Sam Vimes has no idea that Sybil is pregnant, and frankly, Sybil is a bit of a {{Pregnant Badass}} about it, keeping her calm and ducking so her husband can shoot the bandit holding her, with a weapon she doesn't even know he has. She's actually trying (not for the first time) to get his attention long enough to gently break the news to him just before the ambush.]]

* Zig-zag: The ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' episode "Wimped Out" starts off dealing with the guilt Cherie feels for causing Punky to break her leg. At the hospital, Cherie is in a stalled elevator with a pregnant woman going into labor. Cherie winds up delivering the baby herself, and as the elevator car is finally repaired, she is crying hysterically over what she did and went through.

* In the ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' episode "Baby Boom'', a kidnapper strapped with explosives holds a class full of pregnant women hostage.

** And again in "Remote Control".

** One was a 12-year-old girl with religiously- inspired StockholmSyndrome... that is, until the week's CultColony CloudCuckooLander BigBad [[spoiler:says a BlasphemousBoast that earns him a couple of pistol slugs straight to Hell]].
** In "Tragedy", Detectives Benson and Stabler try to find a kidnapped woman with a high-risk pregnancy.
* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'', the season finale had Mac involved in a hostage situation in a bank. The first person he convinces the man to release is pregnant.
* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Teyla gets kidnapped while pregnant. Unusually for this trope, Teyla doesn't escape the hostage situation until after the baby is born (by design.)

* This happens in the ''Series/{{Medium}}'' episode "Joe Day Afternoon".

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': in "Cops and Robbers" one of the bank tellers in the bank that Castle and his mother are unlucky enough to be in when it gets held up is pregnant. She doesn't go into labour or have any kind of risky pregnancy from what we see, however. [[spoiler: Castle does use her pregnancy as an excuse to go to a couch by the windows, however, ostensibly to get her pillows to sit up on but actually because he has a message he wants to get to the cops outside.]]
* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': In "Randy in Charge (...of Our Days and Our Nights)", Earl has to point out to Frank that the very pregnant Joy makes the perfect hostage for a hostage situation.

* {{Invoked}} by the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' team when they get locked inside a patent office with the aid of a device for expectant fathers to "share the pain". Of course, this being ''Leverage'', [[BavarianFiredrill there is no actual hostage situation]].

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': Jamie Berglund in "The Life Inside". When Raylan and Tim storm the hideout, he holds a gun to her belly and threatens to shoot.
* ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'': In season 3 the team pretends to be bank robbers and holds everyone hostage because one person is carrying an Abnormal parasite. One hostage is believed to be the host, but instead is revealed to be pregnant. Later she is the first hostage released.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Riptide}}'' (1984-1986), a young woman is kidnapped for ransom just after she learns that she's pregnant.[[spoiler: The kidnaper is the father of her unborn child.]]

* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': Det. Mazur is briefly held hostage when a woman brings a bomb into the squad room in "The Dead Hand". Angie--who is the only one to know Mazur is pregnant--comes up with a plausible reason for her to be one of the first hostages released without divulging her pregnancy.

* Scott Peterson tried to throw this out as a red herring in the days leading up to his arrest, speculating that perhaps burglars had been surprised by Laci Peterson and had taken her hostage. Even the woman he was having an affair with called him out on how ridiculous that was when he brought it up, saying burglars would have to be insane to take a woman who was ''obviously'' in late-term pregnancy hostage. It didn't fly with the jury, either.

* In the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' DLC "Legacy it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Grey Wardens used Hawke's mother (pregnant with Hawke at the time) as this to force her husband Malcolm to reinforce the wards on [[HumanoidAbomination Corypheus']] prison to keep the Darkspawn Magister from escaping. Though the Grey Wardens kept their word and returned Leandra Hawke unharmed, Hawke is understandably ''furious'' that they threatened both their mother's and their own lives, so much so that the Grey Wardens using Blood Magic again in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' becomes a BerserkButton for the Champion no matter what Hawke's personality is]].

Alternatively, expect the hostage takers to end up in a world of hurt for pressing the BerserkButton of the PregnantBadass.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Archipelago}}'': Pictured on top of this page. Salvo was already doing his best up to that point to define himself as a [[JerkAss jerk.]] Taking Deliza hostage [[http://archipelagocomic.com/comic/?id=611 (seen on this page)]] proved that he had crossed the MoralEventHorizon.

* One ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel'' episode had a bank heist where the robber ordered the pregnant bank teller to go into the safe-deposit area to grab a valuable item. [[FRomBadToWorse Then a gas leak explosion traps her]] in there and he [[SubvertedTrope orders the other hostages to help him dig her out.]] It turns out [[ZigZaggedTrope he's her husband and the]] ''[[ZigZaggedTrope father]]'' [[ZigZaggedTrope of her baby]] - they were desperate for money and planned it together.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]