History Main / MySecretPregnancy

* {{Series/Succession}}: [[spoiler: Shiv gets pregnant, likely towards the end of Season 3, and it’s revealed to the audience in 4x04. At that moment, she hasn’t told anyone, likely due to a mix of getting divorced from Tom (the baby’s father) and the shock of Logan’s unexpected death.]]

* There is a new TLC show called ''Secretly Pregnant'' which deals with women that hide their pregnancy for whatever reason. For example, one woman hid her pregnancy because she was 40 years old and pregnant by a 19-year-old.

A pregnancy which the bearer keeps hidden. The mother may decide on keeping it "[[JustForPun mum]]" for a few weeks or months; in extreme cases, she may give birth secretly and spend years without divulging. Usually she'll have at least one SecretKeeper, to help her maintain the ruse (and possibly raise the child, after birth). The father may or may not know, but the key of this trope is that the world at large does ''not.'' Pregnancy and gestation can usually be hidden at least for a couple of months, but actually going into labor, giving birth, and possessing a child needs very clever finagling - which is why many bearers take a convenient "vacation" around the due date.

Not to be confused with HideYourPregnancy, which is the meta version of this, or LatePregnancyRealization, when not even the mother realizes she is pregnant until she is either heavily pregnant or has given birth.

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', [[spoiler: Videl originally hides the fact that she's pregnant with Pan, but only so she could surprise Gohan later. Her pregnancy becomes a crucial plot point, as it allows Goku to reach the Super Saiyan God form he needed to defeat the BigBad.]]

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': Rose Canton (the Golden Age Thorn) pulled this one on Alan Scott (the Golden Age Green Lantern. First, she married him under a false identity, then she disappeared during the honeymoon, after an explosion that led him to think she had been killed. She had twins, which she gave up for adoption out of fear that her evil Thorn self would harm them, and they grew up to be the superheroes Jade and Obsidian. (Note: this is the ''short'' version!)

* Shows up in ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'', though it is a massive spoiler. [[spoiler:Due to her mess of insecurities, Asuka was rather freaked out when she discovered she was pregnant and had tried to hide it from Shinji (she even went as far as to ''starve herself'' in a misguided attempt to induce a miscarriage). He only found out after a rat got into their trash and he stumbled onto a positive pregnancy test Asuka tried to hide.]] To say he was surprised would have been an understatement.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' AU fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6844942/1/Knocked-Up Knocked Up]]'', Megamind gets Roxanne pregnant after a one-night stand. Since he's still a villain in this fic, this is obviously not good, so creates a disguise generator for Roxanne to use when she starts to show. They handle the doctor's visits by getting Roxanne's midwife friend (and midwife's doctor brother) to help.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fic ''The Truth'', Apple Bloom turns out to be the daughter of Applejack and Big Macintosh, and that the two are actually step-siblings. When Applejack got pregnant at 16, the family decided to raise the foal as her parents' new foal to cover up the potentially scandalous actions; Applejack stayed behind at the farm while Pink Pearl gained weight to convince the ponies of Ponyville.
* Subverted in ''Film/TheHobbit'' fanfic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/4661757 The Monstrous Company of Thorin Oakenshield]]''; everyone knows about the pregnancy except the one person with RapeAsBackstory who would go berserk because she'd suspect it to be a ChildByRape.

* ''Fanfic/CellarSecrets'' has Aikurou's theory about [[spoiler:Ryuuko]] involving this and it's further implied in chapter 16 when Satsuki and Nui find evidence that supports that, along with fact that their little sister might not have been born during happy times, Nui even asking, "I wonder, did [[spoiler: Ryuuko]] remind the Mistress of something she wanted to forget?" We actually find out why Ragyo kept her third pregnancy secret and, well, the reasons were [[spoiler: because of her erratic behavior and her refusal to seek help, Souichiro was planning on leaving her and taking their daughters with him, thus if she had a child within that time, she probably would have lost custody]] She wasn't very keen on letting that happen.
* In ''Fanfic/BlizzardOfTheRedCastle'', Akagi had one long before the events to the Anime and the fic. Reasons were multi-faceted: 1) the father was in her chain of command, and thus a blatant violation of military law, 2) said father's death made the whole situation painful, and 3) there were concerns over how the JSDF and allies would try anything with the baby, and so the baby was sent away not long after the birth. Said child, upon finding out her life was filled with lies, did not react well when she found out.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Offspring}}'', Link and Mipha were married prior to the Calamity and chose to have children despite the risks. They kept their kids a secret from the other Champions. The others didn't learn about their triplets until they came to Zora's Domain themselves in order to fight off Calamity Ganon, at which that point the kids were already four months old. In this case, Mipha had the added benefit of being a Zora and thus she laid eggs, making keeping the secret easier than with humans.
* Satsuki's pregnancy in ''Secret Sunshine'' is this, as she hid the entire length of her pregnancy until giving birth. Her pregnancy being a secret adds much of the drama to the story, given that she also never told anyone else she gave birth and sent Ryuuko away to raise her daughter.
* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "The Birth Of Psycheliana", Smurfette becomes pregnant with Empath's child while Empath was away traveling on the seas, but Smurfette wishes to keep the pregnancy a secret among herself, Papa Smurf, Doctor Smurf, and Polaris Psyche until Empath returns. Tapper does find out, but it's only through a spiritual revelation, and he also intends to keep it a secret. Empath eventually discovers that he's the father of Smurfette's child upon his return to the Smurf Village, and even before that, when on his return trip he experiences MorningSickness.
* Downplayed in ''[[https://www.wattpad.com/story/197976919-cabin-fever-promises-to-keep Cabin Fever: Promises To Keep]]''. It's implied that Marcy never revealed to Paul's family that [[OneNightStandPregnancy he got her pregnant]] [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy before he died]]. Although since they had very little reason to ever see one another, it's unlikely that she had to take any steps to conceal her pregnancy. Even if they did see her pregnant or with her daughter, they would have no reason to suspect that the baby was Paul's.
* ''Fanfic/IWillNeverBeHim'' mainly happens in a harem setting in which the concubines won't hesitate to ''poison'' each other if they suspect one to carry a potential heir to the Demon Sovereign. After helplessly watching the latest wife suffering a ForcedMiscarriage, Shen Yuan refuses to tell ''anyone'' about his own pregnancy.
* ''Fanfic/LoveCanSurpriseYouAtAnyTimeInYourLife'': Leela considers telling Fry about her pregnancy early on, but since he'd just broken up with his new girlfriend, she decides against it. Her plans to tell the rest of the crew (besides the three that already learned on accident) are interrupted when she has to comfort Amy over Kif's death. While Farnsworth is among the first to learn, he's dead set on Leela having an abortion, so she pretends to not be pregnant when she sees him again. Everyone on the crew eventually finds out on accident, except Fry, who Leela finally decides to tell at the end of Chapter 6.

[[folder:Film]]

* In romance novels, the most common reasons are either that she doesn't want to make the man feel tied down (because she's been sleeping with him but doesn't want him to feel like she trapped him into a marriage). Commonly in historical novels the man will find out before the birth[[note]]if the baby turns out to be a boy[[/note]], otherwise it can be years before the hero meets the heroine again and discovers that he has a child. Usually the hero will be angry at the [[WhatTheHellHero loss of time with his son/daughter]].
* In Creator/TomClancy's novel ''[[Literature/JackRyan The Bear and the Dragon]]'', a woman living in the People's Republic of China conceals that she's pregnant, as the unborn child falls afoul of the PRC's "One Child" policy, and thus would be subject to being aborted. (While one can get a permit for another child, when the first has died, as was the case in this example, the woman in question was part of a known Christian family, so the {{obstructive bureaucrat}}s of the region denied the couple's permit request.)
* ''Literature/TheThornbirds'': Meggie goes so far as to sleep with her estranged husband one last time to create an alibi. Justified, as the actual biological father is [[spoiler:a Catholic priest.]] He only finds out years later. Hilarity definitely does not ensue.
%%* ''Southern Discomfort'' by Rita Mae Brown

%%* In the ''other'' book about a young woman being a single mother in the '60s before it's fashionable (Margaret Drabble's ''The Millstone''), the narrator also doesn't tell the father that their one-night stand had results, and when she happens to see him again, lies about the age of the baby so he won't put two and two together. This is a 'not wanting to burden the father one'.
%% What other book is this talking about? Someone want to fix this one or else remove the references?
* Angie Branzino, in June Casey and Joan Triglia's ''Bound By Blood''. She goes so far as to ''wear a corset until the sixth month'' (and only ditches it then because she gets found out).
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** [[spoiler:Leafpool]] hides her pregnancy from everyone but [[spoiler:Squirrelflight]], who then raises the kits as her own. Justified in the sense that [[spoiler:Leafpool was a medicine cat, a role that's forbidden from having kits. Also, the father was from [=WindClan=].]]
** [[spoiler:Yellowfang]] also hides her pregnancy from the rest of her clan, but not from the father, [[spoiler:Raggedstar]]. Then again, she was also a medicine cat.
* In ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'', Elphaba goes catatonic after Fieryo's death and didn't realize that she had given birth to Liir during the time.

* ''Literature/TimeScout'':
** Kit never suspected he had a granddaughter. Because he never knew his Sarah was pregnant. He had to ask his granddaughter whether he'd had a daughter or a son.
** Jenna has an extra reason to hide hers: she's disguised as a man with surgically implanted facial hair.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' people don't ever talk much about late-term pregnancies and try to hide early ones out of a superstitious fear of something going wrong with it. After her brother and several other family members died in an explosion at a theater, a grieving Kij Porter visited a [[SexSlave crib]] and got with child, [[spoiler:but it turns out she made the story about the crib up; she had in fact been [[VillainousIncest impregnated by her brother]] and hid it until she had an excuse not to]]; because of her noble birth, it would have taken a lot to get her to go to a crib. The fear of sexually transmitted diseases, even after she'd proved clean, made it much less likely that she would be married.
* Aliena from ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' hides her pregnancy until the day of birth. She never had sex with her husband, so she knows he'll know right away it's not his, and wants to put that off as long as possible.
* At the end of ''Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', Kissy does not tell James that she is pregnant; instead allowing him to go off to investigate the lead as to he really is, knowing that he will probably never return.
* In ''Literature/NewesOfTheDead'' Anne hides her pregnancy because not only is she pregnant out of wedlock, the father is not her sweetheart from the village but her employer's son, who raped her.
* In the ''Literature/RedRising'' trilogy, Mustang hides her pregnancy from the majority of the cast and from society at large for multiple reasons. In addition to being a rebel leader fighting on the front lines of a war, Darrow was [[BadassInDistress captured]] and imprisoned before she even knew she was pregnant, and when he was rescued after being presumed dead for nine months, the resistance movement he's part of is slowly slipping into HeWhoFightsMonsters territory, and she's concerned that he wouldn't be able to be a good father for their child. She spends the majority of ''Morning Star'' subjecting him to a SecretTestOfCharacter to make sure that he'll be able to be a good father when the rebellion is over, and only tells him when he passes her test.

* ''Literature/TheLittleCoffeeShopOfKabul'': Yazmina is pregnant, but the father was killed. So she has to keep the baby a secret out of fear of execution. Thankfully, most of the coffee shop employees are understanding of it, [[spoiler:though Ashmat takes some time to accept it]].
* In ''Literature/AYellowRaftInBlueWater'', Ida George's aunt Clara becomes pregnant with her father Lecon's child, and now their family is suffering possible shame because Ida's mother was barren after bearing her and her sister Polly. Ida and Lecon come up with the solution that the child would be Ida's through an alleged illicit affair with the boy she was interested in, Willard Pretty Dog, and to keep the pregnancy secret, Ida and Clara would both be sent away secretly to a Catholic mother house in Colorado where Clara could have the child and then disappear while Ida would return to the reservation, bearing the shame of being the teenage mother of Clara's child, who on paper would legally be her own child.
* In the backstory of the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', it's revealed that both of Selena's pregnancies were this. When he learned she was pregnant with [[spoiler:Murtagh]], the baby's father [[spoiler:Morzan]] had Selena spirited away to his castle to give birth in secret and then gave [[spoiler:Murtagh]] to nursemaids so his enemies could never use his son against him. Upon learning she was pregnant with Eragon, who was fathered by [[spoiler:Brom]] rather than [[SympatheticAdulterer her husband]], Selena secretly returned to Carvahall to give birth and gave Eragon to her brother and sister-in-law to raise.
* In ''Literature/ExtremelyLoudAndIncrediblyClose,'' [[spoiler:Oskar's grandmother deliberately breaks her and his grandfather's agreement to never have children,]] and she does this for a while, attempting to hide the bump with baggy clothes and pillows. [[spoiler:Sadly, he leaves her anyway.]]
* In the backstory of ''Literature/NighttimeIsMyTime'', 18 year-old Jean had only just found out she was pregnant when her boyfriend Reed died. [[SecretRelationship No one even knew they were dating]] (or so Jean believed); Jean knew her parents wouldn't be supportive and she wasn't sure how Reed's family would react, so she confided only in Dr. Connors, who helped organise a private adoption. Jean managed to hide her entire pregnancy and give birth in secret by getting an out-of-town nursing home job lasting eight months; Dr. Connors travelled out there himself to deliver her baby. As a result, Jean is understandably freaked out when someone begins sending her messages that they know about her child.

* In Music/TupacShakur's song "Brenda's Got a Baby," the eponymous Brenda is stated to have tried to hide her pregnancy from her family, though they wouldn't have cared even if they ''did'' find out. In the video, she is shown wearing a baggy sweatshirt and resisting a hug from her dad. Apparently, she hides it well enough that no one (her family, her friends, or her teachers) notice any change in how she looks, right up until she gives birth in the bathroom at school.

* ''VideoGame/TheTuringTest'':[[spoiler: Audio logs in one of the hidden rooms reveal that Sarah at some point became pregnant by Chris. Such a relationship would likely be a huge breach of protocol, as even in the current era all space agencies have strident regulations designed to prevent women astronauts getting or being pregnant in space, due both to ethical concerns and the effects that cosmic radiation could have on a developing embryo. The rest of the logs progress from her telling Mikhail about it, to him offering to help her terminate the pregnancy, to him later telling a sobbing Sarah that the fetus has developed a birth defect which will either result in miscarriage or stillbirth. And if you solve the first optional room you find a grave of the child, Minos Brook.]]

* If you romance Aerie throughout ''VideoGame/BaldursGate2'' and its expansion the end result is pregnancy while you are still in the middle of adventuring. Rather smartly Aerie mentions that until the later stages it won't be visible under her long flowing robes. The reason why she decides to hide it from the rest of your party is that she has only recently managed to prove herself as competent in their eyes and does not want their pity or insistence that she needs to slow down.

* In ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'', Usagi returns to his home village for a time, where his former love has been married to another man for several years. The woman has a kid, and Usagi grows quite fond of the little tyke, especially since the guy starts calling him "Uncle". Before long, however, the revelations start: It's really Usagi's kid, of course, and his love didn't want to tie him down (since he's a samurai who needs to be able to travel). After a discussion, Usagi decides not to stick around, lest he drive a wedge between the boy and his adoptive father. Then, somewhat later, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the boy knows that he's Usagi's kid]]. But neither [[spoiler:Usagi nor the kid is willing to tell the other]], believing that the other doesn't know.
* Aside from that, there's also Kahvi from ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', who can't hide her pregnancy but does tell the father that it's not his kid and that the kid died shortly after birth anyway. Then she raises the kid as the ultimate counter-weapon to the father's incredible magic power (and ego).

** The infamous ''[[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski Sins Past]]'' storyline that {{retcon}}ned in Gwen Stacy becoming pregnant with and giving birth to twins (albeit in appreciably less than nine months) without Peter or anyone else noticing into the continuity of early 1970s ''The Amazing Spider-Man''.

* Rose Canton (the Golden Age Thorn) pulled this one on Alan Scott (the Golden Age ComicBook/GreenLantern. First she married him under a false identity, then she disappeared during the honeymoon, after an explosion that led him to think she had been killed. She had twins, which she gave up for adoption out of fear that her evil Thorn self would harm them, and they grew up to be the superheroes Jade and Obsidian. (Note: this is the ''short'' version!)
* In the Bronze Age incarnation of ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', the Kents claimed that Clark was born from one of these. Since Martha Kent had miscarried multiple earlier children, the neighbors were willing to accept her not wanting to mention being pregnant again, and since Clark was 'born' in the middle of winter after a massive blizzard snowed the Kents in for well over a month, nobody other than her husband would have seen her during the time frame when she would have been visibly pregnant, so everyone bought their explanation.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': The infamous ''[[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski Sins Past]]'' storyline that {{retcon}}ned in Gwen Stacy becoming pregnant with and giving birth to twins (albeit in appreciably less than nine months) without Peter or anyone else noticing into the continuity of early 1970s ''The Amazing Spider-Man''.

* In romance novels, the most common reasons are either that she doesn't want to make the man feel tied down (because she's been sleeping with him but doesn't want him to feel like she trapped him into a marriage).
** Commonly in historical novels the man will find out before the birth[[note]]if the baby turns out to be a boy[[/note]], otherwise it can be years before the hero meets the heroine again and discovers that he has a child. Usually the hero will be angry at the [[WhatTheHellHero loss of time with his son/daughter]].

* In ''Literature/TimeScout'', Kit never suspected he had a granddaughter. Because he never knew his Sarah was pregnant. He had to ask his granddaughter whether he'd had a daughter or a son.

* If you decide to romance Doc as the Jedi Knight in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', you'll have a chat about having kids. Since Jedi aren't supposed to have families, he reckons you wouldn't have a problem hiding a pregnancy under all those robes, and when it is born, he'll pretend it's a distant cousin.

* In older times, this was often inverted by adoptive mothers who would fake ''being'' pregnant because they didn't want their families and friends to ask too many questions.
** In the case of Sir Paul Nurse, his grandmother did this to hide the fact that the baby she brought home after going out of town and raised as her biological child was actually the son of her teenage daughter, whom he thought of as his older sister. Sir Paul found this out only in his fifties, when he was initially refused a passport despite his many honors because his short form birth certificate did not list his parents.

* The infamous ''[[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski Sins Past]]'' storyline that {{retcon}}ned in Gwen Stacy becoming pregnant with and giving birth to twins (albeit in appreciably less than nine months) without Peter or anyone else noticing into the continuity of early 1970s ''The Amazing Spider-Man''.

->'''Sophie:''' We can't tell anybody else about the baby, okay?
->'''Sam:''' I just told Bill.
->'''Bill:''' Yeah, and I told Harry.
->'''Harry:''' And I told many, many people…

* ''FanFic/LoveCanSurpriseYouAtAnyTimeInYourLife'': Leela considers telling Fry about her pregnancy early on, but since he'd just broken up with his new girlfriend, she decides against it. Her plans to tell the rest of the crew (besides the three that already learned on accident) are interrupted when she has to comfort Amy over Kif's death. While Farnsworth is among the first to learn, he's dead set on Leela having an abortion, so she pretends to not be pregnant when she sees him again. Everyone on the crew eventually finds out on accident, except Fry, who Leela finally decides to tell at the end of Chapter 6.

* In ''[[Webcomic/Rain2010 Rain]]'', Emily is impregnated (strongly implied to be [[ChildByRape nonconsensually]]) by her (now ex-)boyfriend Chase around Halloween. As she goes to a Catholic high school where premarital sex is potential grounds for expulsion, she hides her pregnancy from everyone at school except her girlfriend, Rain,[[note]][[SecretSecretKeeper although some of her other close friends find out without her knowing]][[/note]] for most of the rest of the school year, until she's too far along to hide it anymore. When she finally has to come clean to the rest of the school, she's given an extended period of detention and stripped of her valedictorianship to punish her for having sex outside marriage (never mind that she almost certainly had no say in the matter).

* Aliena from ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' hides her pregnancy until the day of birth. Not surprising since she never had sex with her husband.

* In ''Film/KnockedUp'', Allison hides her pregnancy at work out of fear that she'll get laid off from her on-camera job as a reporter if her bosses know about it, but eventually her baby bump grows way too large to conceal and her bosses tell her that they know full well that she's pregnant and actually don't mind it.

* ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': [[spoiler:Madeleine doesn't get a chance to tell Bond that she's pregnant partly because they're running for their lives and partly because he's furious at her, wrongly thinking that she's betrayed him. By the time he puts her on a train and sends her away, she's now to heartbroken to say anything, and it's not until they're reunited five years later that he learns that he's a father.]]

* ''Film/{{Waitress}}'': Jenna tries her hardest to keep her pregnancy a secret from her nasty deadbeat abusive husband and was planning to run away with her gynecologist. For several months he actually thought she was just fat. She also decides to keep this from her demanding boss for a time so it might not interfere with work. Humorously, the boss actually knows when she tells him: "You thought I thought you went out and got fat? I don't care if you work while giving birth."

* In Creator/MarionZimmerBradley's ''Centaurus Changeling'', Beth hides her pregnancy from her husband. The only problem is that, as she soon discovers, the air on the planet they are living on is highly poisonous to pregnant women... [[spoiler:And it is revealed in the end that she was mind-controlled by a local to get pregnant without him knowing]].

* ''Literature/TheThornbirds'': Meggie goes so far as to sleep with her estranged husband one last time to create an alibi. Justified, as the actual biological father is [[spoiler:a Catholic priest.]] He only finds out years later, after Hilarity most definitely does not ensue.

* In ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' novel "Literature/WolvesOfTheCalla", Susannah is becoming pregnant but decides not to tell Roland, Eddie, or Jake for a long time, since she is also still having her periods. In the next novel, we find her baby is [[spoiler:half-Crimson King, half-Roland man/spider hybrid Mordred]], although, strangely, [[spoiler:Mia]] is the actual mother and performed a GrandTheftMe on Susannah.
* ''Literature/IKnowWhyTheCagedBirdSings'': Maya Angelou relates that she knew she was pregnant, but the surprise was certainly on her family after she hid it from them for eight months.
* In Lynne Reid Banks' ''Literature/TheLShapedRoom'' the protagonist has absolutely no respect for the father and doesn't really want him around, so she doesn't tell him. Made easier by the fact that their paths had uncrossed by then. He finds out by happening to pass her when she's very big.
* In the ''other'' book about a young woman being a single mother in the '60s before it's fashionable (Margaret Drabble's ''The Millstone''), the narrator also doesn't tell the father that their one-night stand had results, and when she happens to see him again, lies about the age of the baby so he won't put two and two together. This is a 'not wanting to burden the father one'.
* Angie Branzino, in June Casey and Joan Triglia's ''Bound By Blood''. She actually goes so far as to ''wear a corset until the sixth month'' (and only ditches it then because she gets found out).

* In ''Literature/TheRedTent'', Leah does this with her first pregnancy for a time, so as not to upset Rachel, who is celebrating her own bridal week. Later, Rachel does it herself while she is pregnant with Joseph, until she is about 3–4 months along, hoping she won't "jinx" it and have another miscarriage.

* ''Literature/TheLittleCoffeeShopOfKabul'': Yazmina is pregnant, but the father was killed. So she has to keep the baby a secret out of fear of execution. Thankfully, most of the coffee shop employees are very understanding of it, [[spoiler:though Ashmat takes some time to accept it]].

* In the backstory of ''Literature/NighttimeIsMyTime'', 18 year-old Jean had only just found out she was pregnant when her boyfriend Reed died. [[SecretRelationship No one even knew they were dating]] (or so Jean believed); Jean knew her parents wouldn't be supportive and she wasn't sure how Reed's family would react, so she confided only in Dr. Connors, who helped organise a private adoption. Jean managed to hide her entire pregnancy and even give birth in secret by getting an out-of-town nursing home job lasting eight months; Dr. Connors travelled out there himself to deliver her baby. As a result, Jean is understandably freaked out when someone begins sending her messages that they know about her child.

** It's repeatedly hinted that [[spoiler: Pepper]] is pregnant throughout the first book, though how long it takes her to figure it out is unclear.

* ''Film/EightWomen'': Suzon is a young, unmarried woman in the 1950s, so she wants to have as few people as possible knowing about her pregnancy. When her father is found murdered and she becomes a possible suspect, she is forced to admit to the other women that she made a clandestine visit to the house the night before to tell him about her pregnancy.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Padmé Amidala does this in scenes whenever she is appearing in public during Episode III: ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. [[WordOfGod George Lucas]] said this was intentional since she needed to uphold her reputation as a senator and, more importantly, hide her relationship with Anakin who is not supposed to have a wife ''or'' children. This is somewhat subverted due to a great many people (including a couple of the Jedi) knowing about or having suspicions about their relationship. Thus when she began wearing form-concealing clothes, they connected the dots. Also, Force-users are capable of sensing life via the Force so any Jedi worth their lightsaber likely knew she was pregnant. The surprise for everyone was that she was carrying twins.
* In the movie ''Film/{{Waitress}}'', Jenna tries her hardest to keep her pregnancy a secret from her nasty deadbeat abusive husband and was planning to run away with her gynecologist. For several months he actually thought she was just fat. She also decides to keep this from her demanding boss for a time so it might not interfere with work. Humorously, the boss actually knows when she tells him: "You thought I thought you went out and got fat? I don't care if you work while giving birth."

* In ''{{Theatre/Dreamgirls}}'', [[spoiler:Effie never tells anyone about her pregnancy once she's kicked out of the show. She tried to give Curtis a hint but he never picked up on it. He finally catches on after seeing Effie's pre-teen daughter at the end of the film.]]
* In ''Film/{{Saved}}'', good little Christian girl Mary has sex with her boyfriend in an attempt to "cure" him of his homosexuality. She successfully hides the resulting pregnancy for months because pregnancy at her school is "about as common as the flesh-eating virus."
* Teola from ''Film/TessOfTheStormCountry'' manages to hide the fact that she is pregnant out of wedlock. She finally winds up in Tess's cabin to deliver the baby. Tess then passes off the baby as hers.
* Lydia in ''Film/{{Innerspace}}'' keeps it a secret from Tuck. When he finds out [[FantasticVoyagePlot while cruising around in her womb with his minisub]], he starts crying TearsOfJoy. Referenced again at the end when Tuck's first words to Lydia after being returned to normal were, "Why didn't you tell me?"
* The main plot of ''Film/ToEachHisOwn'': Jody has her baby in New York instead of the small town where she's from.

* In ''Film/NeverRarelySometimesAlways'', Autumn hides her pregnancy, only telling her cousin Skylar about it.
* In ''Film/NotWanted'', Sally has her baby in a special institution for unwed mothers.
* ''Film/WhereHandsTouch'': Leyna must hide being pregnant, as she's supposed to have been sterilized. Also, it would provide evidence she's had sex with an "Aryan", which is a crime punishable by death.
* In ''Film/QuickChange'', the female bank robber keeps her pregnancy secret from her boyfriend, the ringleader, firstly because she doesn't want anything to distract him from the heist they're pulling off and wants to wait until they're away and free to spring the good news, then because she doesn't like what he seems to be turning into following the heist. Unfortunately, she confides in the less-than-bright third robber, who accidentally spills the beans.

* ''Film/NoTimeToDie''.[[spoiler: Madeleine doesn't get a chance to tell Bond that she's pregnant partly because they're running for their lives and partly because he's furious at her, wrongly thinking that she's betrayed him. By the time he puts her on a train and sends her away, she's now to heartbroken to say anything, and it's not until they're reunited five years later that he learns that he's a father.]]

* ''Nobody'' outside UsefulNotes/SarahPalin's immediate family knew she was pregnant with Trig, her fifth child, until she was seven months in. For a forty-something, mother-of-four governor, that's not unimpressive. Unfortunately for her, this just gave ammunition to her political opponents, who accused her of faking the pregnancy to cover up premarital hanky-panky by her teenage daughter. No actual evidence exists to support the claim, but when has that ever stopped people from making accusations against political figures they don't like?

''Fanfic/JohannaMasonTheyWillNeverSeeMeCry'': The oldest victor of District 7, has a daughter and grandchildren whose births he never reported (he faked his wife's death when she got pregnant and found a man willing to go into hiding and marry his daughter) so they can escape the reapings and the Games, and they live in his house in secret.* In ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'', [[spoiler:Kyon's pregnancy was this]]. It helped the mother-to-be [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother was young and a late bloomer]], had a FriendlessBackground and by the time she realized her pregnancy the father-to-be stopped visiting her for a few months because they lived in opposite sides of Japan.

* In ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'', [[spoiler:Kyon's pregnancy was this]]. It helped the mother-to-be [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother was young and a late bloomer]], had a FriendlessBackground and by the time she realized her pregnancy the father-to-be stopped visiting her for a few months because they lived in opposite sides of Japan.

* ‘’{{Series/Succession}}’’: [[spoiler: Shiv gets pregnant, likely towards the end of Season 3, and it’s revealed to the audience in 4x04. At that moment, she hasn’t told anyone, likely due to a mix of getting divorced from Tom (the baby’s father) and the shock of Logan’s unexpected death.]]

* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', Wanda had one of these during the first war against Voldemort, panicked and had the resultant baby adopted with the help of her best friend, Lily Potter. The kicker is that said baby is Hermione Granger. The reasoning behind this was a combination of ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies for both her and the father John Constantine - considering her RoguesGallery and his usual enemies, it's generally accepted that any child she tried to raise would probably have died horribly in short order. As for the father, she considered (not without reason) him to be a GlorifiedSpermDonor and the desire to [[GiveHimANormalLife let her child live a normal life]] and, of course, to keep said child away from her father, who was part way through his HeelFaceTurn (which, in any case, she was and remains sceptical of).
** It's repeatedly hinted that [[spoiler: Pepper is pregnant]], though whether she knows or not is up for debate.
** On top of that, Sirius explains that Lily was pregnant with a second child and had been planning to tell James after Halloween, to make it a surprise, and has since kept it secret for James/Thor's sake.