You stupid pieces of @#!%, I was in the army too, and I didn't forget four years of training the moment my egg's perimeter was breached! You think just because I can't see my feet right now that I can't put one of them up your cowardly ninja asses?
In Real Life, pregnancy is just a natural part of the cycle of life, with women commonly managing to work right up till they go into labor and resuming normal activity a few days after. However, it's also damned inconvenient, marked by tenderness of various random body parts, moderate to severe nausea and vomiting, challenges to joints and ligaments that can be exceedingly painful, and of course, all that ballooning up a pregnant woman has a tendency to do. Particularly troublesome pregnancies can even be incapacitating.
On TV, pregnancy falls at one of two extremes. Either it's a debilitating condition that takes former Action Girls out of commission for the duration, rendering them physically and emotionally fragile or even bedridden — or exactly the opposite. Whether it's due to surging hormones or newfound maternal instincts, in action shows, pregnancy can cause a woman to take a level in badass — sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently in preparation for becoming a Mama Bear or Action Mom.
If they really want to emphasize what a Badass we're talking about she'll run into a major battle nine months pregnant, go into labor while fighting, retire just long enough to deliver the baby, then get up and return to the fray.
A Pregnant Badass, of course, might be part of a Battle Couple.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
A rare male example is Yuuji from Animal X, who takes on a Tyrannosaurus rex with a chainsaw, takes out four men with a fire extinguisher, and breaks out of a secure medical facility, liberating at gunpoint the repressed vaccine for a deadly man-made virus, all the while pregnant.
Viletta Nu from Code Geass avoided capture when Lelouch takes over the world with Cornelia's rebellious group while pregnant with hers and Ohgi's kid. Yeah, she was on the early stages, but she did have a notorious baby bump by the time Zero Requiem had its climax — and right then she was seen with a gun in her hands alongside Cornelia and Guilford.
As a part of her Adaptational Badass makeover of sorts, Deirdre takes the trope and makes it a part of her Crowning Moment of Awesome. The infamous "let's bring King Clement down to normal with a Silence staff so his Mackily castle can be taken without spilling any blood" gig happened when she was in the first stages of her pregnancy with Seliph.
We also have Ira and Adeangiving birth during the Silessa arc. Adean only has her eldest son Lester (with Jamke, in this continuity), while Ira has twins (Ulster and Larcei, with Lex). The same arc also has Ethlyn pregnant with her second child Leif, but she doesn't give birth until few later.
Similarly, another chapter reveals that few months after this Badass Princess Raquesis is pregnant with her eldest son Delmud (Finn's child, in this particular media.)
The mother of the Liebert twins from Monster made an escape attempted involving crawling through some vents while heavily pregnant. Read "heavily pregnant" as "goes into labour just as she gets out of the building". So close...
Subverted in Naruto, since Mama Bear Kushina Uzumaki restrained the Kyuubi after giving birth to Naruto. This is still impressive considering that this was hours after the birth.
Half averted, half played straight with Kurenai Yuhi. As her specialty is genjutsu, illusions which typically requires a minimum of physical effort, she'd likely only be partially hampered by being pregnant. But since it's Asuma's child, her long term on-again-off-again lover who just died in battle, she chooses to stay out of going on missions while carrying. Not to mention Shikamaru constantly looking out for her, as the last promise he made to his dying sensei.
Neon Genesis Evangelionmight be using this in a very strange way with Units 01 and 02. The pilots' mothers' souls are inside the units, and the entry plug is filled with what might be amniotic fluid and is compared to the womb several times.
It was revealed during Shaman King, that before Yoh and the gang left for America, he and hisfiancée, Anna, they... well... you know. Six years later in the epilogue we see their son Hana... which means yes, in those few months of the last chapters, Anna would have been in those early stages of pregnancy.... and she still kicked all kinds of butt as usual.
Eureka doesn't let being six months pregnant stop her from kicking ass in Eureka Seven Ao.
A slightly more plausible example than many, but Shogun Yoshimune from Ooku refuses to call off a meeting with her advisors just because her labour pains have started, and continues to debate economic policy with them even during the climactic stages.
Ballads
In the Child BalladFause Foodrage, the queen knows her baby will be killed if a boy, and so goes to escape in advanced pregnancy, just before she goes into labor.
"O narrow, narrow is this window, And big, big am I grown!" Yet thro the might of Our Ladie Out at it she has won.
She wanderd up, she wanderd down, She wanderd out and in, And at last, into the very swines' stye, The Queen brought forth a son.
Comic Books
In The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, the heavily pregnant Princess Anne leads her armies into battle against the Cromwellian regime dominating an alternative Britain while just about ready to drop, goes into labour during the battle, gives birth (to twins!), and then gets right back up again and, bare-naked, leads the final climactic charge. The Boudicea-like imagery is not lost or wasted on her or her followers.
Ms Tree: Michael is impregnated by an old flame who is manipulating her to kill his wife. She decides to keep the baby, creating a unique series of adventures of this homicidal PI fighting off criminals even while dealing with a full term pregnancy while the mob family she hates moves to protect her in their own way.
Forgotten Realms Comics: A assassin caught very pregnant lady Shaerl Amcathra and proclaimed she was his hostage. That is, found a mid-level Cormyrean thief in the mood of a hungover cobra, then gave her a target less than arm's length away and a surprise round to vent it. Before his next articulate word he was lying on the ground separately from his sword, and hurt in at least three places.
In X-Force, Wolfsbane. She was already a pregnant mutant werewolf, which would be badass enough in its own right, but the strain of the pregnancy was killing her until Elixir altered her DNA to be more like her unborn baby's, resulting in super strength, bulletproof (at least) skin, and a significant enough upgrade to her already heightened senses that they're now more acute than Wolverine or X-23's. And why did Elixir have to do this? The father of her child is an Asgardian wolf-god.
Marvel Comics' Jessica Jones. Highlights include beating up the Green Goblin with his own glider when she thought something had happened to her baby, and disarming Kang the Conqueror and pointing his own BFG at him when he tried to threaten her in Young Avengers.
The Green Lantern Amnee almost defeats the baby-stealing villain Kryb in single combat while heavily pregnant. At one point, she uses her Green Lantern Ring to create a huge construct in the form of a late-term fetus, complete with umbilical cord, and makes it beat Kryb up for her.
Mother of Champions from The Great Ten. Perpetually pregnant, and perpetually a badass too.
Parodied in Power Girl. While at the movies, PG and Terra are watching a trailer for a comedy/action movie about a fat geek who has a drunken one-night stand with a gorgeous supermodel/international super-spy and winds up getting her pregnant. The model's firing uzis in battle when she complains that her water just broke, as the guy is trying to not throw up at the information in a book about birth. The movie is called Fat Guy and the Hot Chick.
Scarlet Witch effortlessly took out The Toad, her Stalker with a Crush, when he stormed the house in a battle-suit to profess his love. (It didn't help that his first reaction on seeing her hugely-pregnant self was "Yuck!")
Fan Works
ComicsNix fanfic Bella Swan Pregnant and Furious: Bella is pregnant — obviously — yet she is still able to kick the shit out of ninjas, pirates, zombies, and even Satan himself. And the funny thing is, it's all because the baby clothes she found were all very ugly.
As in post-series canon, Zoe in the Firefly fic Forward.
In the Elemental Chess Trilogy, the pregnant Riza initially subverts the trope by submitting meekly to being placed under "protective custody" (read: house arrest) while her husband is on trial. When she finds out that he's being rescued from his wrongful execution and she herself has a chance to escape, she takes it and reaches the allied forces in time to help stop The Dragon from having her True Companions killed.
TRON fanfic, Through A Diamond Sky: The Iso scout Kanna is carrying a new "spark" and gives birth on a Recognizer as the crew's making a run for it. This does not slow her down at all. She still holds her own with the rest of the cast in fighting off the Resource Hog Gang, including a chase on light-cycles and wielding a BFG. The last line of the story indicates her daughter turned out pretty badass herself.
In Game Theory, Megane is eight months pregnant and capable of calling forth her most powerful summonsbut the strain of using that much magic induces labor, which makes it a deconstruction.
American Dragon Jake Long: A fanfic from the "Anything and Everything" series portrays Rose as such.
Lind in the Ah! My Goddess series was about as strong as they come, able to hold her own against Hild while she has an angel missing. However, in the story Ah!Archfall!, pregnancy actually TRIPPLES her strength, making her the only one who can match Papa Jupiter in a one-on-one showdown.
Films — Animation
Pacha's wife Chicha in The Emperor's New Groove is pregnant throughout the movie (and shown realistically), but with the help of her young children is more than a match for the villain Yzma.
Anita Mui's character in Stephen Chow's Justice My Foot. Keeps fighting right until she goes into labor, and even for a brief while afterwards.
Averted with Padmé from the Star Wars prequels in a case of Badass Decay. In the second film, she is running around with bared midriff and firing a blaster at enemy droids. In the third film however, once she becomes pregnant, she is very much a Distressed Damsel, more emotionally than in the literal sense, but justified in that she's pregnant with twins and could easily injure herself or the children at that point in the pregnancy, and in fact suffers what's essentially Death by Childbirth and Death By Despair after she delivers them.
Jackie Chan's pregnant stepmother in Legend of Drunken Masterwants to fight, but nobody will let her, though it's shown she has the ability to kick just about anybody's ass. Subverted in that she's not really pregnant and was just faking it so her husband wouldn't punish Jackie too harshly for being out of bounds and getting smashed to fully exploit the power of the Drunken Fist style while in the middle of a street brawl.
Kill Bill: The Bride, although she'd literally just found out she was pregnant (test still in hand). Also, she and her attacker decided to just walk away instead of fight. Otherwise an aversion, which led to the plot occurring.
Before that strip turned blue, I was a woman. I was your woman. I was a killer who killed for you. Before that strip turned blue, I would have jumped a motorcycle onto a speeding train... for you. But once that strip turned blue, I could no longer do any of those things. Not anymore. Because I was going to be a mother. Can you understand that?
Conan's mother in the 2011 movie. A Lady of War, she is mortally wounded and wants to see her son before her death. Her husband then helped her, carving a caesarean section with his sword, giving birth to Conan on the battlefield.
Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston retells the Chinese legend of Fa Mu Lan in Chapter 2, including the heroine becoming pregnant during war and giving birth during battle. She even wore specially-made armor during her pregnancy that would fit around her enlarged stomach.
In Broken, Elena's mate's and father-in-law's overprotectiveness drives her directly into adventure. And despite her newfound caution and her center of gravity being thrown off balance, she still manages to kick large amounts of ass. And then she learns she's the equivalent of nine months pregnant for her race and she's having twins.
Mara Jade in the New Jedi Order books, compounded by her also having a debilitating disease for part of the series yet still managing to kick massive amounts of ass.
The Thrawn Trilogy: Leia Organa Solo, pregnant with twins, being accepted as the Mal'ary'ush by the Nohgri and showing them how the Empire has only contributed to their problems. When she's pregnant with her third child in Dark Empire, she shows herself capable of matching Luke in a lightsaber duel.
Lisanne Norman's Sholan Alliance Series features Carrie Hamilton-Aldatan, a lady who fights a Duel to the Death while pregnant. During a subsequent pregnancy, she goes off time travelling.
Charity from The Dresden Files was first introduced in the third book as Michael's very pregnant wife. She is later kidnapped by the baddie wanting to get back at Michael, while she isn't able to escape herself she is able to put a very impressive fight. Needless to say, her status as an Action Mom in later books didn't come as a surprise.
Peeta from The Hunger Games claimed that Katniss was pregnant, likely making some people think she was this. It was just a lie to get sympathy so likely averted. Finnick used this a lot in the Quarter Quell when Katniss freaked out.
Thursday Next in Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots. Initially averted in that she's hiding out in the BookWorld because her assorted enemies mean it wouldn't be safe for her to stay in the Outworld during her pregnancy. Still, she ends up saving the day in the BookWorld.
In The Wheel of Time, the nine-months-pregnant Shaiel, a Maiden of the Spear (woman warrior), walked with a massive army hundreds of miles to a foreign land to hunt down a king, climbed a mountain to fight the decisive battle, and then gave birth in the middle of that battle to The Hero. Also Elayne, in later books.
In Roger Zelazny's Lord Demon several female demons go into the most recent grand battle pregnant, and at least one of the young demons has been born during this battle.
In Eric Nylund's Pawn's Dream, the antagonist is given a huge power boost in the final battle because of her pregnancy, as magic is powered by dualities. Having two beings (well, three, she's pregnant with twins) in one body is a major one.
Kitai is pregnant during the entire last book of the Codex Alera. This doesn't stop her from being very, very badass.
In Dies the Fire, the first volume of S. M. Stirling's Emberverse series, nine-months-pregnant Juniper Mackenzie leads the Clan Mackenzie in battle against a group of Eaters (crazed cannibals), goes into a holy berserker-trance in which she invokes the Blood-Crow aspect of the Goddess, and opens the battle by killing the first Eater with an arrow. The Mackenzies win. The moment the battle is over, Juniper goes into labor and delivers Rudi Mackenzie.
Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow, is exceptionally fond of this trope. Pregnancy will make tough women even tougher ( Sofia Mendes in The Sparrow, Ha'anala in Children of God, Mirella in A Thread Of Grace). A standout example is Claudette/Claudia from A Thread Of Grace.Gradual character development caused by being on the run from the Nazis turned her from a bratty teenager into a serious girl wise beyond her years. However, being married, knocked up and widowed all within a few days causes her to take several levels in badass. While pregnant, she's running dangerous missions for the Italian Resistance. By the last days of the war, she's mowing down ambushing Nazis with a machine gun.
The story-within-a-story of Tadeusz Borowski's "The January Offensive" features a pregnant woman who joins the Russian march on Berlin in WWII, stopping for only a day to give birth to her child before carrying it along with her on the march. The story's listeners consider this implausible.
The climax of Eric Flint's 1632 has not one, not two, but three pregnant badasses shooting up an army of Croats that attack their town. Promptly lampshaded when another character comments, "Boy, did they pick the wrong time to piss off pregnant women."
Meg Langslow in Stork Raving Mad just as she's about to give birth to twins.
An honorable mention must go to the unnamed mother of Conan the Cimmerian, who it is explicitly stated gave birth to him on a battlefield.
In the Time Scout series, Ann Vin Mulhaney (resident gun expert) is pregnant as of the last two books.
Alexia Tarabotti in Gail Carriger's The Parasol Protectorate series. Most notably she manages to fight with and then rescue an entire vampire hive from a mechanical octopus machine, deal with a freed pack of moon-crazy werewolves and manage to get control of the situation and protect everyone, all of this minutes before giving birth.
Reiko from the Sano Ichiro mysteries. Being pregnant doesn't stop her from getting involved in dangerous detective investigations, or getting into knife fights with crazy villains and winning.
In Dark Moon, Tek tosses one of Korr's thugs off a cliff and fatally injures him while carrying the twins.
Arguably the original of this trope occurs in Irish myth. In the _Ulster Cycle_, Macha, the daughter of Sainrith mac Imaith, is married to Crunniuc, who foolishly boasts of her running speed in front of the King of Ulster. Though she is heavily pregnant with twins, the king forces her to run a race with his chariot horses. (She appeals to those around her to stop it, but the Ulstermen fail to stand up for her.) She wins the race easily, delivers twins at the finish line, and lays a curse on all Ulstermen to endure the pangs of labor for 5 days and 4 nights in their times of greatest difficulty for not helping her. The curse endures for 9 generations, thus proving it is a Bad Idea to Piss Off The Pregnant Lady.
In Xanth, Queen Irene's talent over plant growth is enhanced to Sorceress (aka Magician) level while she is pregnant with Princess Ivy, who even before birth was evidently demonstrating her Magician level talent of enhancement. Irene's power level remains that way even after Ivy is born.
Averted a couple ways in The Stone Prince. Isolde DeKathrine is betrothed to the eponymous Prince, and unknowingly a couple weeks pregnant with his child, when she helps fight off an attack on the royal party (due to Gender Is No Object, she's a fully fledged knight and lord). Months later, after they're married, she is forbidden to come with her husband to war once it's discovered she's carrying the next heir to the throne. She is absolutely furious with him, even though he's her monarch by this point, and all their servants and guards are quite aware of it.
Legacy of the Dragokin: A flashback reveals Daniar was this at one point. Deconstructed as a belly wound killed the fetus.
The Lady Jessica, in Dune, quickly forces Stilgar (the leader of his sietch and therefore its mightiest warrior) to submit and keep the other Fremen at bay. She does this while not heavily pregnant but pregnant nonetheless.
Live-Action TV
Piper from Charmed. She was made more dangerous because her unborn son protected her with a force field. Well, when it wasn't turning her explosions into bursts of flowers, or switching her powers with Leo's. Unfortunately, her second pregnancy is just the opposite and leaves Piper essentially bed-ridden (because Piper's actress was actually pregnant.)
Gwen Cooper in Torchwood: Children of Earth. Although most of her badassery does occur when she's still in a fairly early stage of pregnancy; it's towards the end when we see her with a visible baby bump.
Xena in Xena: Warrior Princess. Pregnant, but still managed to backflip and whatnot. Xena once fought off a small army of soldiers sent by the gods to stop her from giving birth, while she was in labor. As one fan noted, the woman must be made out of cast iron.
During The Peacekeeper Wars, Aeryn Sun fires on her enemies while in labor.
Aeryn:(teary, minutes from birth) Shooting makes me feel better!
Earlier, Aeryn pointed out to John that she was "pregnant, not incapacitated." Clearly.
Commandant Grayza, who killed her lover (and commanding officer) because he considered surrendering to the Scarrans and then took over command despite the High Council's orders. When questioned:
Grayza: Don't let the belly fool you, Lieutenant. You were aware of my status? Lieutenant: Commandant, ma'am. Grayza: And who in this battle group outranks me? Lieutenant: No one.
Ashes to Ashes: Jackie Queen headbutts a pornographer while vastly pregnant, and insists on tagging along on the team's investigation. And she's not even a copper. Then again, she's from Glasgow.
Teyla in Stargate Atlantis. In one episode, the bad guy made a comment about Lorne's men letting her doing the interrogation; she responded by tapping the guy's shoulders with the log she used to knock him out earlier, then threatening to frame him to the villagers as a Wraith worshipper. And that's after Sheppard took her off active duty when she confessed that she's pregnant. A Wraith Queen tried to attack her baby in utero and she used her psychic powers to fend her off with unprecedented strength. Her powers are genetic, and she could resonate with her son, giving her access to double the psychic powers she previously had for the duration of her pregnancy.
Similar to the above Farscape quote, Teyla has to tell Ronon "I'm pregnant, not ill" when he suggests that she shouldn't be exercising.
Not quite as action-oriented as other examples, but in Stargate SG-1, Vala was pretty badass during her pregnancy. Even if you ignore the whole "left outside for several days while pregnant" thing, she later risked her life to warn Earth of the impending war and then insisted on traveling into said war with her husband. Granted, she was probably hoping to get back to Earth (which she did) but that's still pretty badass, especially for a heavily pregnant woman.
Battlestar Galactica (Reimagined) While it probably counts as a Mama Bear moment, Sharon cracking a bulletproof window with her head during late pregnancy was certainly a feat of badassitude. Then again, she isn't really a human...
Alias: When Sidney Bristow was pregnant with Vaughn's child and he was not really dead, she used her hormones as an excuse to kick his murderer out a window. Note he was tied to a chair and five stories up. And despite her pregnancy, she remained an active agent and was able to do all thatit required.
When Mary Stuart Masterson hosted Saturday Night Live in 1992 she did a sketch called "Lisa Piongrasic, Very Pregnant Undercover Cop". She played the title role who was a hardassed and pregnant police detective with Phil Hartman playing her superior and Chris Farley as her bumbling partner. The opening credits showed her with a baby bump climbing a chain-link fence, posing undercover as a prostitute, participating in a high-speed chase, throwing a bad guy over some garbage cans, and practicing self-defense training, getting hit head-on by a car, peeking out slowly from behind a wall on stakeout. The rest of the skit showed her and Farley trying to take down a drug dealer played by Dana Carvey doing a Scarface impression.
The possibility of dying along with her baby on the island takes LOST's Sun from The Stoic to this trope in season four. Reaches its apex when a very pregnant Sun informs her Jerkass father that she's bought out his corporation and now, he works for her.
Darla, the only vampire who ever got pregnant in Angel. She still had all of her extra vampire strength, leading to some violence when she went into labor... and all that extra hunger can rack up a huge kill count.
Kira Nerys in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine beat the shit out of a serial killer while the equivalent of nine months pregnant.
Her pregnancy wasn't used in series, but on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) shot one of her best episodes ("Remember Me") while heavily pregnant, including doing her own rather strenuous stunt (dangling from a wall-mounted chair and flailing as air was blasted at her, so it would look like she was being sucked into a vortex).
An non-action example: Maxine Peake's character Martha Costello from the recent British courtroom drama Silk. She's a barrister, she's pregnant, and she's such a darned determinator that even a violent beating-induced miscarriage in the first season finale won't stop her from defending a client she believes to be innocent.
Amelia Pond from Doctor Who. While it was an episode that technically never happened, in "Amy's Choice," she definitely counts. She was toward the end of her pregnancy, describing herself as "a boat." Despite this, she's able to keep both the Doctor and Rory at bay, and was mowing down aliens left and right.
Invoked by George on Alien Nation when, having had his machismo belittled by Sykes all episode for being pregnant, he absolutely creams a thug who threatens both cops, then explains that he was protecting his baby.
Perhaps not as badass as other examples, but Haley from One Tree Hill slapped Rachel in a an awesome moment while pregnant with Jamie.
Temperance Brennan on Bones. Heavily pregnant and still ran right into a fight with a perp despite Booth warning her not to. Briefly played for laughs when she falls into a narrow space and her stomach keeps her from getting up.
Desperate Housewives has Lynette Scavo, who pushes a young girl out of the way of a crashed plane barreling down the street while pregnant with twins. Unfortunately, the event causes her to miscarry one of those twins.
A later example finds her convincing a serial killer, a very troubled boy she befriended, to help her deliver her baby, save said baby's life, and winds up convincing him to turn himself in.
Tabletop Games
The Weapons of the Gods RPG has the "Xia Pregnancy" ability, which allows a woman to fight at (almost) full strength while pregnant. It also protects the foetus from any attack that does not kill the mother, and, during the third term, from attacks that do kill her.
Exalted: Being that they are immensely powerful demigods, Exalts are capable of pulling this off. Exalted women often don't even show outward signs of pregnancy for much longer than normal, and even when they do, superhuman stamina, pain resistance, and dexterity means it fails to get in the way much. Tepet Ejava's mother Ellora pulled the "gave birth in the middle of battle" variant.
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal: If the player is romancing Aerie, she becomes pregnant early on in the expansion. Her stats aren't affected in the slightest, and this is around the level range where Aerie grows into one of the most powerful characters in the party. Character-wise, she Takes a Level in Badass in Throne of Bhaal anyway, so becoming pregnant is only incidental.
It gets better: take long enough and she'll give birth, right near the end of your adventure (and likely smack dab in the middle of a dungeon). After taking a few moments of rest she patches herself up with a few healing spells, then jumps right back to fighting/traveling alongside you with baby in tow.
The Boss, toward the end of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, explains a lot of her backstory to her prized pupil Naked Snake. The woman was pregnant when she and her compatriots participated in D-Day during World War II. More than pregnant — she gave birth by self-performing a Caesarean section while storming the beach at Normandy.Pregnant Badass taken to extremes, perhaps.
Louise in Fire Emblem Elibe. In her A support with her husband, Lord Pent, she reveals to him that she's expecting a baby. Who will grow up into Klein.
The women in the first half of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of Holy War may qualify, if they get paired up; we never are given estimates of when most of their kids are born anyway. At least Lachesis is intended to be pregnant during the battle of barhara.
In Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance we are introduced to Ena, a young woman who is reunited with her betrothed at the end of the game, only for him to die in her arms. She then gives birth to his child at the end of the sequel, three years later. So this girl, who changes into a dragon, fought in two wars over four years, and was pregnant the entire time!
In Dwarf Fortress, pregnancy doesn't affect creatures in any way, so you commonly have pregnant dwarves beating goblins to death with warhammers, sometimes giving birth in the process, sometimes using the newborn infant as a shield... Foals and puppies, if born during combat, may actually join in.
The female player character in many Harvest Moon games isn't slowed down whatsoever by being pregnant, and is capable of doing everything from debilitatingly exhausting farm work to riding horses to mining with no ill effects. Some of the things the different husbands say during their pregnancy even lampshades this, to the effect of "If working hard on the farm like this doesn't make you sick, nothing will."
In The Sims 3, a heavily pregnant superspy can raid the "secret" criminal base
If you apply some thought to the gap between Final Fantasy IV and its sequel (and remember an early scene between her & Dark Knight Cecil), Rosa is implied to be one during most of the former, being that she manages to be 19 in the original game and 36 in the sequel with a 17-year-old kid. Perhaps unfortunately, though, the latest Updated Rerelease of IV and TAYretcons the kid's age to 15, thus removing the primary evidence for Rosa being a Pregnant Badass. Fandom disagrees over whether to accept this retcon, as some people find the idea of Rosa beating up Zeromus while pregnant just too good to give up.
Even if the retcon is accepted, Sheila (Yang's wife) was likely already pregnant with Ursula when she was beating up mooks with her frying pan.
At the end of Turok 3, if you're playing as Danielle, you find out she's been pregnant the entire time, thus securing the Turok lineage for another generation.
Sengoku Rance: Isoroku is one when she shoots an arrow to distract Xavier who retaliated by having her leg cut off! She even survived her pregnancy and delivered her son with Rance.
In the third season of Telltale Games' Sam And Max Freelance Police, Sybil Pandemik is fifteen months pregnant when she volunteers to go inside the giant Eldritch Abomination currently rampaging through the city and fill in the team roles of psychologist, brain surgeon, veterinarian, scuba diver and dark wizard.
The happy-go-lucky yet very effective wavemaster Mistral in the .hack games is revealed in the Light Novel retelling to be Mayumi Kurokawa, a housewife pregnant with her first child.
Ayla of Chrono Trigger is a Boisterous Bruiser cavewoman who clobbers a world-ending Eldritch Abomination with her bare hands. And depending on how you read some of her lines, she does all this while dealing with morning sickness. Or a hangover. Hopefully not both.
Dragon Age: Origins has Morrigan. If the Dark Ritual is done, she is pregnant during the Battle of Denerim. If the Player Character sleeps with her but doesn't go through the ritual, she is still revealed to be with a child during the epilogue.
Kazumi: Why should I care how many of you I kill? I can just make more IN MY TUMMY! Ninja: Please, don't hurt me! I have children too! Kazumi: Did you go through half a year of haemorrhoids to get them? Turn around, and I'll show you exactly what that feels like!
This is also a quiet parody of the fact that there are no pregnancy rules in Dungeons & Dragons (let's be honest, there's no need for them), so there's nothing stopping her from fighting at full capacity. Or more, if your campaign happens to have Mama Bear house rules.
Well, technically there aren't pregnancy rules for Dungeons & Dragons. The often not talked about "Book of Erotic Fantasy" (which is a third party book) does include rules for pregnancy, but even in the 3rd trimester the penalties it brings can be more than overcome by a high enough level character. So even if the ''OoTS(( universe included 3rd party books, she could still kick ass and take names.
In the comic strip series The Adventures of Fifine, Beautiful Darkness takes down a cybernetic freak by poisoning him. Despite being in her first trimester.
In the Ciem Webcomic Series, this is Zig-Zagged. It is completely averted by Candi most of the time in the first story, then subverted when enemies absolutely force her to act badass while pregnant. She gains enough control of herself in Ciem 2 to keep fighting Capp Aard even while pregnancy is bringing her down to normal. Then, in Ciem 3, her body hormones are rigged by a bracelet to make her feel and act pregnant when she isn't; and she still acts debilitated in spite knowing her body is being tricked. Yet, a friend of hers from Kolumn's prison, Tammy, remains badass enough to find a solution, in spite being put on the same drug. Miriam, however, plays this absolutely straight. She even saves Candi one time — by ramming Capp Aard with a stolen car — while pregnant with twins!
Dominic Deegan: Miranda Deegan saved the world from the Storm of Souls while heavily pregnant with her first child, Jacob.
The title character of the now-defunct Magical Girl webcomic Brigadier Swirl becomes a badass as direct result of becoming pregnant. Her unborn twins were actually the ones with all the powers. But since they are, ya know, inside her, their mother gets access to said powers by proxy. She and her four similarly powered-up friends (who were also pregnant, btw) go on to save the world from evil repeatedly... or would have, had the strip not ended after just two issues.
All of the female leads in Olympic Dames gain abilities due to their pregnancy, but Kasumi and Catherin in particular seem to revel in their new found powers.
In the supplementary blog to Kevin & Kell, Lindesfarne notes that female bear hunting athletes actually try to become pregnant, since motherhood and impending motherhood makes them more aggressive (to the point that fertility drugs are classified as a performance-enhancing drug in their case).
Oiloss'lin Xyrrai'zestu Sharen, a cameo character from Drowtales, is three months pregnant according to the concept art. When she shows up in the story she has a Big Damn Heroes moment and saves her daughter from being captured.
Radio
The Penny Dreadfuls Presents The Brothers Faversham takes this to parody levels with the titular brothers' mother Lady Alexandra Faversham ("The British Empire's greatest, sexiest and most pregnant spy"). As each episode is a mini-biopic of successive members of the Badass Family, each one begins with the dramatic circumstances of their birth, usually while Lady Alexandra is right in the middle of one of her adventures, and often mid-battle (in one case actually using her newborn son to give her the numerical advantage in a fight).
Western Animation
Fox Xanatos of Gargoyles — Granted, it's before she's far enough along to be impeded, but she still announces her pregnancy to her father while dangling from the rope ladder of a helicopter, after having nearly staged a hostile takeover of his company (For the Evulz, of course). Given that he's pretty badass from his wheelchair, this may be genetic. She was also having a karate match with her husband right before she got the doctor's call. Fridge Logic leads one to assume Papa Wolf David made her give those up, however. Mere hours after giving birth, she shoots a Physical God with a laser gun. There is a reason she is Badass, people.
Family Guy: In the beginning of "Petarded", Bonnie jumps while shooting.
In Wakfu, it is not outright stated but heavily suggested that Evangelyne is one at the end of Season 2.
Lady Rainicorn from Adventure Time, as revealed in the episode "Lady and Peebles".
Real Life
This is the primary basis behind the evolution of live birth in orders of animals not limited to mammals (some sharks, snakes, frogs, and other oviparous animals have evolved pregnancy and live birth). Eggs can only defend themselves passively and either have to be guarded (like what aligators and birds do) or hidden and left to their chances(like what sea turtles do). If an egg is an embryo guarded by a wall, then pregnancy is an embryo inside of a tank.
Freydís Eiríksdóttir, daughter of Erik the Red, was mentioned in two Norse epics involving early exploration of the Americas. She battled several Native Americans while pregnant and bare-chested, when the male warriors were running away.
Mary Ann Patten, portrayed in The Captain's Wife. She was the wife of the captain of the clipper ship Neptune's Car. She had also studied navigation as (so she thought) a way to pass the time. When her husband was seriously ill (perhaps with meningitis), she took over the ship and sailed it round Cape Horn, while at the same time being The Caretaker to her husband. All the time being pregnant. She was one Pregnant Badass.
A legend knows to tell that the two infamous lady pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, of Captain "Calico Jack" Rackham's crew upon the capture of their ship were the only ones willing and able to defend the ship — since everyone else apparently was drunk as skunks. Bonney and Read, on the other hand? Both heavily pregnant. They managed to escape execution because they were pregnant (and the unborn baby hadn't committed any crimes).
According to another legend, Gráinne Ní Mháille (more commonly known as Grace O'Malley) actually gave birth in the middle of a sea battle.
Patti Graham, who married Robin Graham along his voyage around the world and returned from the voyage pregnant.
Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had sixteen children. She did this while administrating an empire and waging continent-wide wars. While in labour with Marie Antoinette, she was reading and signing documents, pausing only to bring the archduchess into the world. After which she immediately resumed the paper signing. At the outbreak of the War Of The Austrian Succession, she rallied the initially hostile Hungarian nobility with a speech to the Diet, delivered while cradling her newborn son—prompting a famous and resounding cry, Moriamur pro nostro Rege, Maria Teresa! ("Let us die for our King, Maria Theresa!"). This woman breathedBad Ass.
Maria Theresa's ancestor, Isabella I of Castile, commanded the combined troops of Castile and Aragon in battle during the Reconquista while pregnant. Her husband Ferdinand? Content to spend his time far away with his mistresses and then show up in the last phase of the battle to take the credit.
According to Women Warriors: A History by David E. Jones, "Phung Thi Chinh went into battle pregnant, gave birth on the battlefield, strapped the baby to her back, and fought her way back to safety." (She was one of 36 female generals chosen and trained by female revolutionary leaders fighting against the Chinese governance of Vietnam in AD 40.)
The praying mantis takes this trope to levels once thought impossible, as demonstrated here.
Caterina Sforza was an Italian Noblewoman in the Italian Renaissance who held the title of Countess of Forli and a reputation for being a badass even from her youth. The death of Pope Sixtus IV launched a firestorm of political battles and multiple sackings of Rome as the surrounding noble families made their bids to fill the void with their own puppet priest. In the face of all this Caterina Sforza took to Rome on horseback with her band of mercenaries to stake her claim in the conflict. She occupied the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Pope's massive fortress and residence, by sword and cannon fire for a three month siege by the opposing militias of various noblemen, after telling them, some of the most powerful men in Italy, to get bent, with Rome burning around her, while seven months pregnant. The only stopping point was when her husband, Girolamo Riario, accepted to surrender the fort to the Cardinal's control only on the terms that they had their power consolidated in Roman politics.
An American history book had a whole chapter about crossdressing girls in the American Revolution, including an excerpt of a report in which "a soldier was promoted to corporal for repeated displays of courage on the battlefield... since which time the corporal has become mother of a child".
On MythBusters, Kari handled guns and grenades as usual throughout her pregnancy, along with all the other usual stuff of myth-busting. She was more safety-conscious and cautious about body armor and such while pregnant, and it turns out they actually make bulletproof vests for pregnant women. Who knew?
Today, I caught two guys trying to steal stuff out of my yard. Needless to say, by the time I was done with them they had put everything back where they got it, were promising to bring the other stuff back that they had stolen, and were apologizing every five seconds. I am one tough pregnant lady.
This woman, who gave birth 7 hours after finishing a 26.2 mile marathon, which wasn't even the first marathon she ran while pregnant!
This woman is a physical therapist who scaled the steep rocks at Joshua Tree National Park while eight months pregnant.
To give some perspective on what Pregnant Badasses are up against, the comment thread of the linked article is full of active, athletic women describing the physical agonies pregnancy put them through (loosening of pelvic ligaments is apparently one of the worst).
Kristie Moore was five months pregnant when she served as the alternate in the Canadian women's curling team in the 2010 games. The team won silver.
A relatively recent (As of Sept. 2012) story was of a woman serving in the British military as a bombardier in Afghanistan, all the while pregnant...but not knowing of it until she gave birth. So she qualifies, even if she didn't realize it.
Amy Jo Johnson found out she was pregnant before filming the show Flashpoint. Despite this, she filmed the entire first season while pregnant (which couldn't have been easy; Flashpoint was a series about a SWAT Team.) She then went on maternity leave and had her baby between the first and second seasons, and there are very few episodes of season 2 that omit her entirely.
Queen bees, who are responsible for laying all the hive's eggs and thus constantly pregnant, are the only type of social bees that can sting multiple times, in stark contrast to the defenseless and sessile queens of other hive insects such as ants or termites.
On the other hand, a queen bee's movements are often tightly controlled by her workers. The workers will defend her with their lives and do all the work for her, but otherwise her authority doesn't look like much.
Just about any female predator that lives a solitary life (and even some that don't) still needs to hunt while carrying. For example, female lions hunt while pregnant, and have evolved measures to make sure the foetus survives the term in the form of a network of suspending muscles around their uterus.
