25 of the Best Movies & TV Shows About Pregnancy

This is a classic John Hughes film that treats newlywed life with care and honesty. Sometimes young couples assume that their fertility journey will be a breeze, but as this story delves into, it’s not as easy as the movies can make it look. In addition to struggling to get his wife pregnant, Jake (played by Kevin Bacon) is also disillusioned with married life in general and unsure whether he even wants to be a father.

Hugh Grant plays a commitment-phobe who is suddenly faced with the biggest commitment of all — his girlfriend (played by Julianne Moore) gets pregnant. But when she threatens to strike out on her own, he decides he’s ready to get his act together and try to be a father. As a bonus, Robin Williams plays the couple’s hilarious OB-GYN.

Eighties icon Molly Ringwald stars in this movie about a teen couple who gets thrown into adulthood quickly when Molly’s character becomes pregnant. She’s faced with the tough decision of whether to go through with the pregnancy or not. But together with her boyfriend, she decides to face the task head-on — with all of the challenges that come with being a young parent.

Flash forward a couple of decades and Molly Ringwald went from playing the pregnant teen to playing the mom of a pregnant teen in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. This show is pretty overly dramatic about young Amy’s pregnancy (think Glee meets a soap opera), but it’s definitely entertaining.

If you’re looking for a more real approach to teen pregnancy, this MTV reality show about several young expectant mothers has you covered. It originally aired from 2009 to 2014, but MTV revived the series in late 2020 with a look at a whole new set of teen moms-to-be. It’s a fascinating look at how the younger generation deals with this kind of responsibility.

You’ll never be more thankful for modern medicine than when watching the births in this period drama about London midwives in the late 1950s. Labor has come such a long way in the last 70 years — and in many ways it hasn’t changed at all. Aside from the pregnancy aspect of the series, you’ll want to watch just to keep up with the nurses’ dramatic personal lives.

Pregnancy can be so different for every woman. This hilarious movie takes a look at several characters’ paths to giving birth — from the woman who has it all together (including that epic pregnancy glow), to the mom-to-be who is just trying to make it through the day. The film is also super star-studded, so you’ll enjoy watching everyone from Cameron Diaz and Anna Kendrick to Elizabeth Banks.

The scenario that Jane (Gina Rodriguez) finds herself in is pretty unlikely to happen in real life — she’s accidentally artificially inseminated by her bumbling OB-GYN during a routine checkup — but it makes for a fascinating story. The show is told like a telenovela, with dramatic love triangles, wild schemes, upsetting deaths, and more. And viewers are guided through it all by one of the best narrators ever to grace TV.

When a drunken one-night stand turns into a real-life pregnancy, Seth Rogen’s character, Ben, is forced to figure out how he feels about fatherhood — and how he feels about the mother of his child, Alison (played by Grey’s Anatomy‘s Katherine Heigl). As with any Judd Apatow movie, a lot of hilarity ensues.

Jennifer Lopez’s character, Zoe, turns to artificial insemination when she loses faith that she’ll ever meet the right man to have kids with. But right as she chooses the life of a single mother (of twins no less), she meets her dream man. Will Stan decide to stick around with her for this surprise parenting journey?

This movie explores what happens when you don’t necessarily want to keep an accidental pregnancy. Jenny Slate plays an immature and unemployed comedian who gets pregnant after a brief fling. She’s faced with some big decisions, especially because she doesn’t feel like an adult yet herself. Whether you agree with her eventual choice or not, it’s an interesting storyline for a film to navigate.

As many people who have given birth in a hospital can attest, the experience isn’t always the best. This documentary explores why and how hospitals have become big business machines that don’t necessarily always put you and your baby above the bottom line. It also delves into modern medicine and technology and how it can help or harm mother and child.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a classic comedic duo, and they knock it out of the park in Baby Mama. In the film, Amy plays Tina’s surrogate, who has no idea how to raise herself — much less a child. And Tina plays a neurotic single businesswoman who is desperate to finally have the family she’s always dreamed of.

Teen pregnancy has been explored time and time again in media, but Juno approaches the topic in a fresh and honest way. When teenager Juno finds herself knocked up, she decides to go through with the pregnancy so she can have the baby adopted into a more loving and stable home than she’s able to provide. The movie went on to win the best original screenplay award at the 2008 Oscars.

Things aren’t going great for Jenna (Keri Russell). She’s a diner waitress in a bad marriage in a small town when she discovers that she’s pregnant. She decides to make a break for it and start fresh, but just as she’s about to leave town, she falls for her new OB-GYN. Soon he becomes more than just her doctor, as he helps her navigate through this tough period of her life.

Here’s one for fans of The Office. John Krasinski stars in this movie with Saturday Night Live‘s Maya Rudolph. The duo plays a couple about to have their first child when they decide to move and start fresh with their new little family. They run into a lot of obstacles along the way to finding what home truly means to them.

Rob is an American on a business trip abroad when he encounters Sharon, an Irish school teacher. They meet in a bar, hook up, and Rob goes home. But when Sharon discovers that she’s pregnant, Rob uproots his life to start anew with her. And while they’re basically strangers, they’re willing to work through the awkwardness to face life as new parents together.

This six-season show covers all aspects of parenthood, from fertility issues and pregnancy to raising teenagers and dealing with your adult children. So while pregnancy isn’t the main focus, it is an integral part of a larger exploration of a complicated family dynamic. And with actors including Dax Shepard and Lauren Graham starring in the series, you can’t go wrong.

This quirky Canadian comedy shows how tough “having it all” can be. The show — whose final season premiered on Netflix in April 2023 — focuses on a group of women who have babies or are expecting babies and depicts how tricky navigating new motherhood and a flourishing career can be. But through all the ups and downs that pregnancy and parenting can bring, at least they have each other.

When comedian Amy Schumer found out she was pregnant, she started documenting her journey for what would go on to be an extremely raw, real, and emotional three-part series. As anyone who’s seen Amy’s standup can attest, she does not pull any punches when talking about the realities of her life. Her exploration of pregnancy is just as honest.

In the 2018 film Tully, Charlize Theron stars as Marlo, a suburban mom who is struggling to cope after the birth of her third child. Her wealthy brother hires her a night nurse as a gift, but Marlo is at first offended by the suggestion that she can’t handle things on her own — until the capable, free-spirited Tully wins her over and the two form a deep bond. The movie unflinchingly depicts the exhaustion and isolation of those first few weeks at home with a new baby, something moms everywhere can relate to.

In Father of the Bride Part II, we pick back up with the lovable Banks family as they discover they’re soon going to be doubly blessed. Not only is newlywed Annie (Kimberly Williams) expecting her first baby, but mom Nina (Diane Keaton) learns that what she thought were menopause symptoms are actually pregnancy symptoms. Not surprisingly, having his daughter and his wife pregnant at the same time sends the anxious and neurotic George (Steve Martin) into meltdown mode. But he gains a new perspective on life along the way …

Hunky Hugh Grant sadly didn’t sign on for this third movie in the popular Bridget Jones franchise, but producers offered up McDreamy (aka Patrick Dempsey) as a very worthy replacement. As the story kicks off, Bridget (Renée Zellweger) finds herself pregnant at 43, only she’s not sure who the father is — the handsome stranger (Patrick’s character) she spent one wild night with, or ex Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), with whom she has just reunited.

Sure, Lifetime TV movies can be a little cheesy and over-the-top, but 2010’s The Pregnancy Pact is ripped from real headlines, making it a riveting watch. It’s the story of a group of teenagers from the same Massachusetts high school who all decide to get pregnant at the same time, give birth, and raise their children communally. But not surprisingly, things don’t work out quite as perfectly as they planned.

Where the Heart Is — based on the best-selling book by Billie Letts — stars Natalie Portman as a pregnant 17-year-old who is abandoned by her boyfriend at a Walmart in a small town in Oklahoma with only $5 in her pocket. She secretly moves into the store, where she eventually gives birth to her baby daughter. With the help of some eccentric but kind strangers-turned-friends, she slowly begins to rebuild her life.