History Main / TheBabyTrap

* ''Manga/NagasareteAirantou'': Ayane once planned doing this to Ikuto to make him more unwilling to leave the island. [[ButtMonkey For once]] her plan works and she manages to pin down Ikuto under her while being half naked. Unfortunately she has no idea what they are supposed to do next. [[spoiler:At least she gets their FirstKiss out of it!]]

-->Worked hard to trap his ass, got him to propose to me, oh my God, then we got married, my dream is coming true, then we got pregnant, and recently we bought our first home together. And two weeks into the escrow process, I learned that my beautiful, Harvard educated husband was ''seventy thousand dollars'' in debt. And me, with my hard earned T.V. money, wound up paying it all off. [{{beat}}] So as it turns out, he's the one who trapped '''''me!''''' ... Now if I don't work, we die! Why else do think I'm doing this show while seven and a half months pregnant?!

** Played straight with her son Tommy, who was deliberately conceived for this trope. While being blackmailed into joining the ComicBook/SecretSix, Cheshire singled out Catman as the most desirable candidate and seduced him to get pregnant again. She did this for two reasons. The first being that she would now have ''a'' child in case Mockingbird followed through on his threat to detonate a bomb in Lian's head. The second that she would rely on Catman to protect her from the Six's eventual retaliation after she betrayed them to the Secret Society.

* Mariella Zabini from ''Fanfic/BlackSky'' is purely motivated by her desire to escape her life as a prostitute when she engages herself into an affair with the Prince of Sabina, whom she ''knows'' is without a male heir to succeed her. Unusually for this trope, the baby's birth would have been a boon for every party involved: Sabina gets an Heir and Mariella as the mother gets to spend her life in comfort and safety. Unfortunately, the Prince wasn't keen on acknowledging he fathered a bastard, [[spoiler:so he brutally mind-wiped Mariella and abandoned her to die in a slum, with her son who later grows up to become Xanxus of the Vongola.]]

* the ''Series/StargateSG1'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2491548/1/The-Dorsa The Dorsa]]" features Captain Selena Sanchez, who develops such a twisted obsession with Daniel Jackson that she uses alien pheromones to basically drug Daniel into a heightened state of arousal so that she can rape him and impregnate herself, threatening to abort the baby if he won't dump Sam Carter (who he has recently started dating) and marry her. Fortunately, her subsequent hearing rules that she isn't mentally stable enough to make a choice about getting an abortion for herself and she is forced to carry the child to term, the baby being given to Daniel and Sam after the birth as Sam affirms that she will never see the child as anything less than her own daughter.

* Attempted in ''Film/TheAssociate'' on a non-existent man who was, when he appeared, a crossdressing woman.

* In ''Film/DropDeadFred'', the reason Lizzie's mother Polly was so cruel to her was because she used this trick to try and save her marriage. When it didn't work, [[NeverMyFault she placed the blame squarely on her daughter's shoulders]].

* In ''Film/{{The Invisible Man|2020}}'', Cecilia had a secret stash of birth control pills because she knew Adrian, her abusive husband, wanted to have a baby to enact this trope. However, Cecilia [[spoiler: gets committed to a mental hospital]] after Adrian [[spoiler: killed her sister while wearing his invisible suit in the restaurant she and Cecilia were eating dinner]]. When she gets a medical check up she finds out that she's [[spoiler: pregnant with Adrian's child, and finds out that he replaced her secret birth control pills with placebos]] shortly before she ran away from the house as away to ensure [[spoiler: that she would return to him]].

** One of the activists in the film Jaye interviews alleges that it was done to him by his own wife, who trapped him in their marriage through getting pregnant, and then describes the hell she put him through in their custody battle.
* Lynette is the aspiration for Caitlyn [=McNabb=], one of the main antagonists of the TV movie ''Film/RevengeOfTheBridesmaids''. When her mom grows too old to snag her fourth husband, Caitlyn [[GoldDigger carries on the family tradition.]] After an impulsive one-night stand with her friend Racheal’s super-rich ex-boyfriend Tony, she fakes a pregnancy to trick him into marriage, even though he’s still in love with Racheal and vice versa. She even cheats on a doctor’s test using her best friend’s sister's urine, who’s constantly pregnant due to being married to an Irish-Catholic. [[spoiler: Of course, by the end of the movie, Tony’s suspicious of her true motives, and lies about his family losing his fortune to test her. Once she thinks that Tony’s broke, Caitlyn loses all interest and reveals her lie, and the wedding is called off.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Accelerando}}'' Mannfred Macx's girlfriend ''rapes'' him to have his child and force him to be what she sees as a responsible adult. Ultimately subverted; while she does have a daughter, and Mannfred does what he can to be a part of her life, he continues his lifestyle as before.

* ''Literature/DarkHeart'': Wyre claims to be pregnant by Raine after they have sex, so he feels duty-bound to marry her. It turns out she's isn't, and was just lying to manipulate him.

* ''Series/BostonLegal'' came up with a pretty good, if extremely far fetched argument for a court-ordered abortion, possibly inspired by one of the real life examples below. A woman gave her boyfriend oral sex (to which he "barely consented"), then spat the semen into a cup and used it to impregnate herself and didn't tell him until she knew it worked. The man argued that he was tricked into impregnating the woman, and additionally, it imposed a dilemma upon him, as he was known to be outspoken on the issue of absentee black fathers and would have to choose between being a hypocrite or help raise a baby he didn't want. The judge admitted that the case was compelling, but not quite enough to warrant the extreme measure of ordering the woman to undergo an abortion.

--> '''JJ:''' Here's the thing? Do we believe her or not? On the one hand, getting pregnant is straight out of the female psychopath's handbook....
--> '''Prentiss:''' But on the other hand, that would mean she sent her lesbian lover down to Mexico to... ''[[{{Squick}} Ew.]]''

* Anya tries to do this with Sav on ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'', but she ends up telling him and taking the morning after pill.

* ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': Petra planned to have a baby with her infertile-due-to-cancer husband's last sperm sample in order to save their marriage so [[GoldDigger she could get the money specified in their prenup]]. Unfortunately for her, her gynecologist and sister-in-law accidentally inseminates Jane instead. Later, [[spoiler:upon learning that there's ''another'' sperm sample after Rafael breaks up with her, Petra uses it to impregnate herself in what she admits is a ploy to get him back. This time the pregnancy takes.]]

** Another episode was about a woman who got pregnant by her rich boyfriend. She chose to keep the baby despite the fact that she was aware the baby might have a potentially serious birth defect, and even went out of her way to find a doctor who wouldn't run the relevant tests. Then, when her husband died and she wanted more money, she tried to sue the aforementioned doctor for malpractice for not running said tests.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': An inversion happens in one episode, an elderly Bundy relative dies and leaves all his money to the next Bundy to concieve a child. Hoping to cash in, Al persuades Peggy to try having another child, but secretly takes birth control pills since she doesn't want more kids, and is just using the situation to have as much sex as she wants (the stress of which makes Al age prematurely).

** A Season 47 episode has Creator/JasonSudeikis as the Devil accuse Colin Jost of pulling the baby trap to stay with Scarlett Johansson, who was pregnant at the time.
* ''Series/Scoundrels2010'': Cal doesn't think much when Nina Hong, the TrophyWife of his boss, decides to [[MrsRobinson seduce him]] and [[SleepingWithTheBosssWife have non-stop sex with him]] for a while (mostly because it's [[SexGoddess the best sex he's ever had]]). Later, he finds out Mr. Hong is actually infertile and Nina seduced him in order to get pregnant and pass Cal's child as Mr. Hong's, so she could secure her [[GoldDigger gold ticket as Mr. Hong's wife]]. Cal is horrified when he finds out, and tries to convince her to get him to be a part of the child's life, but she laughs him off and makes it clear her husband ''will'' kill him if Cal ever exposes the truth.

** Also inverted with Kim, who leaves the hospital and fakes a miscarriage rather than have J.D. feel trapped into a relationship. Then he finds out the truth and decides he wants to be with her, then he changes his mind but can't tell her, then he finally breaks off the relationship ''while she's giving birth''.

** Later, [[spoiler:Nancy]] does it to [[spoiler:Esteban]]. This was less about maintaining a relationship than as self-defense against murder.

* Parodied in the ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'' video "The One". A guy and girl are about to do the deed, and she asks him if he's sure that she's the one for him. He reassures her, and is then shown poking holes in his condom while whispering that he's gonna ''make'' her "the one". Still quite creepy.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Stan and Francine once did this to ''another couple'', who they befriended without knowing the other couple were about ten years younger than them, and found it impossible to keep up with their hard-drinking, active lifestyle. Rather than give up the friendship (knowing that the couple had previously drifted apart from their last friends for this same reason) Stan and Francine tried to slow them down by sabotaging their birth control, thinking that having a baby would make them just as exhausted. [[spoiler: It doesn't work, the couple almost divorces over it due to neither feeling ready to have a child, and when Stan admits what they did, they stay together but never want to see the Smiths again]].
* ''WesternAnimation/BeeAndPuppycat'': Toast gets pregnant in order to force her residency with the father's family, although it's the baby's ''aunt'' she's trying to trap, since she's obsessed with the aunt as her one-sided rival. The father seems totally fine with the situation and the only part that fazes him is his sister's furious reaction.

** In an episode, Stewie pulls this on Brian in order to salvage their friendship. [[MisterSeahorse How he does this]] [[{{Squick}} is very disturbing]]. Ironically, he didn't even need to do this, as the reason it seemed they were drifting apart were because of a mutual misunderstanding (Brian seemed distant because he thought Stewie was moody, Stewie seemed moody because Brian was distant).

* The Department of Defense is very aware of the Baby Trap, particularly in regards to the service academies of West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy. Cadets at these institutions are told in no uncertain terms that marrying while a cadet means being automatically dismissed from their school. Not only is this because the male cadets have absolutely zero time for a wife, but also to make them aware that they have to be very, very careful. Female cadets who get pregnant are also automatically dismissed.

* In a rather infamous case, Music/JustinBieber was sued by a woman over a backstage encounter which resulted in a child. Unfortunately for her, what she [[DidntThinkThisThrough failed to take into account]] was that, according to the date she provided for the encounter, he was 16 and she 19, meaning that if it were true she would be guilty of [[{{Ephebophile}} statutory rape]] (and, of course, if it wasn't true, she would be guilty of defamation and extortion).

* There are stories on the internet of ''mothers'' tampering with their child's or child's partner's contraceptives because they weren't having children fast enough for the mother's liking, and she decides to force the issue.

* In the ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'' [[AlternateUniverse AU]] fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/24654493/chapters/59615725#workskin What to Expect When You're On the Run]]'', [[{{Yandere}} Vanessa]] purposely got herself pregnant because she wanted her husband to leave his university and be with her more permanently.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12464607/1/Crazy-Little-Thing-Called-Love Crazy Little Thing Called Love]]'' Astoria falls in love with Harry while having an affair with him. Afraid that he's going to end it due to feeling guilty, she drinks a fertility potion before their next meeting.
* ''Fanfic/TheNewRetcons'': When Elizabeth comes back from her honeymoon pregnant, Elly is excited that she did it "so soon" and winks at her. This is later revealed to be because Elly tried this with [[spoiler: her first husband Stan Watson out of fear he would cheat on her or leave. Not only did it not work, it resulted in Michael.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' fanfic ''Fanfic/MaFille'', Katrina's EvilAunt Laura attempts to claim that Katrina's father Glass Joe is also the father of her baby. However, this fails as a) Joe has a restraining order against Laura, b) he hadn't seen her in over two years, c) he's gay, and d) he's married. Laura eventually relents and admits her baby's father is an anonymous sperm donor.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13980772/4/Between-Thought-and-Reality Between Thought and Reality]]'' Harry has had so many witches cancel their anti-conception spells mid-coitus in an attempt at this that he drinks a sterility potion before any sexual encounters.

* Quite a few romance novels have this trope, usually with a BabiesMakeEverythingBetter ending.
** However, one case that [[{{Deconstruction}} deals with the aftermath of this]] is ''Sisters Found'', where one of the lead characters had been adopted for just this reason. When it wasn't enough for the adoptive father to stay, the adoptive mother became an alcoholic and resented the hell out of her daughter. To make things worse, said daughter later finds out [[spoiler:that she was the only one of identical triplets to be given up - one of the other two had a medical problem and the cost of hospital bills was such that it was either give up one child or lose them all when Social Services saw they couldn't support their family]]. Not surprisingly, she has ''major'' commitment/abandonment issues.
** In ''The Secret Love Child'', the hero either sabotages the condom or simply chooses not to tell the heroine that it broke. Naturally, she gets pregnant. Naturally, they get together and it is All Very Romantic. Luckily she apparently really really wanted to have babies.

* ''Literature/MySweetAudrina'' has Vera ''attempt'' to do this with Lamar Rensdale, so that he'll take her with him to New York, but she suffers a ConvenientMiscarriage shortly after announcing the pregnancy.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Stan and Francine once did this to ''another couple'', who they befriended without knowing the other couple were about ten years younger than them, and found it impossible to keep up with their hard-drinking, active lifestyle. Rather than give up the friendship (knowing that the couple had previously drifted apart from their last friends for this same reason) Stan and Francine tried to slow them down by sabotaging their birth control, thinking that having a baby would make them just as exhausted. [[spoiler: It doesn't work, the couple almost divorces over it due to neither feeling ready to have a child, and when Stan admits what they did, they stay together but never wants to see the Smiths again]].

* ''Literature/MySweetAudrina'' has Vera ''attempt'' to do this with Lamar Rensdale, so that he'll take her with him to New York, but she suffers a ConvenientMiscarriage.

* In one of WebVideo/ThomasSanders' "Siri's a bitch" WebOriginal/{{Vine}}s, she pulls this on him.

* Subverted hilariously early in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', when Ryoko implies that her ship's egg is actually her and Tenchi's child. Tenchi's family and even Sasami are actually happy for them (though obviously not Ayeka), totally ignoring Tenchi's denials. The egg quickly hatches and is revealed to be the rabbit-like Ryo-Ohki, but some swear they still see a resemblance to Tenchi.

* Music/MichaelJackson's "Billie Jean" is about this. Namely, all the "Billie Jeans" his older brothers had to deal with when they were together in the Jackson 5. The song is [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe ambiguous about whether the narrator really is the father]].

* Subverted hilariously early in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', when Ryoko implies that her ship's egg is actually her and Tenchi's. Tenchi's family and even Sasami are actually happy for them (though obviously not Aeka), totally ignoring Tenchi's denials. The egg quickly hatches and is revealed to be the cabbit-like Ryo-Ohki, but some swear they still see a resemblance to Tenchi.

The character doing this is usually female, often a teenage girl, because of [[MarsAndVenusGenderContrast gender stereotypes]] that say all women are [[MyBiologicalClockIsTicking desperate to get married and have babies]] while all men flee commitment as long as they can. (This is dependent upon several factors within real life, such as abortion rights. These laws can cause a huge imbalance in agency, whereas either a woman has all control over what happens within her body or none at all. This can also put pressure on the father as well, who has to either [[HonorableMarriageProposal make an "honest woman"]] of her or take financial responsibility.) Because of this, female characters who are disliked by their male partner's friends or family may be suspected of plotting to use this trope on him even if there's no evidence of any such thing. The moral tone also depends on several factors, such as the gender doing the trapping and the circumstances in which the sex took place. For example, a man who traps a woman is portrayed as planting something within her body that she ''does not'' want there. The greater problems of {{Double Standard Rape|Female On Male}} and MaritalRapeLicense also create deeper concerns.

* Downplayed in ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi''. Mami tells Makoto she's pregnant (after they broke up) and she wants to get married, but she didn't do it on purpose. [[spoiler:They end up running away to start a new life before she finds out she's not pregnant after all.]]

* In ''Comicbook/XFactor'', Rahne, who is very Protestant and pregnant with a mutant-Wolf God hybrid baby, lets ex-boyfriend Rictor assume that he's the father of her baby after returning to find him about to get busy with [[HoYay Shatterstar]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Used a couple of times in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''. In one episode, the wife sabotaged her husband's condoms and secretly gave him some fertility drugs to boost his sperm count in order to impregnate her boss. She did this because she had planned on blackmailing her boss at a later date into giving her some money so she could buy a farm and a horse.

* On ''Series/{{Revenge}}'', Victoria apparently faked a pregnancy to get Conrad to marry her and then faked a ConvenientMiscarriage to cover it up.

* Carla tries to do this with Turk in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. Later, she and Turk have an open and honest discussion in which they agree they both want to have kids ... after which he starts slipping her contraceptives when she's asleep.

* Played with in ''Series/Charmed1998.'' After Cole is possessed by the Source, the Seer leads him in impregnating Phoebe, as the child of the Source and a Charmed One will be a being of immense magical power, and if they can control the circumstances of the conception, that power will fall under the Evil alignment. She even provides him with a potion to supercharge Phoebe's fertility and "bypass any precautions she may have taken." And the pregnancy is a major factor in Phoebe's decision to remain loyal to Cole and (temporarily) become the Queen of Hell. But ultimately, the Seer wanted the baby for herself so that she could use it to legitimately claim the title of Source, and even though possessed-Cole willingly went along with the plan, his goal wasn't to manipulate Phoebe, only to have a child (albeit, an extremely powerful one).

* Though it's a recurring point in ''Film/AnOfficerAndAGentleman'', the movie also tries something different: [[spoiler:Lynette only claims to be pregnant so that Sid stays in a relationship with her. She spills the beans when he resigns from the military to be with her, [[WhatAnIdiot which she didn't want]]. One has to wonder when she would have confessed her lack of pregnancy otherwise.]]

* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7077352/6/Viper Viper]]'' Ginny is pregnant with her married lover's baby and tries to convince Harry that it's his, despite the pesky little fact that he's (a) no longer in a relationship with her and (b) a virgin.

* Music/MichaelJackson's "Billie Jean", quoted above is about this. Namely, all the "Billie Jeans" his older brothers had to deal with when they were together in the Jackson 5. The song is [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe ambiguous about whether the narrator really is the father]].

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' during ''Love Hotel'', Miu heavily implies to Shuichi that she was a result of this trope. [[spoiler: And suggests that they do the same thing so that Shuichi won't abandon her.]]