Posted: January 16, 2024

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Pregnancy. A natural, wonderful part of the world. In fiction, however… I’ll be honest—I don’t like it. Without fail, it seems like the carrier is always resigned to a damsel-in-distress role. Most of the time, it just undermines the strong female characters I’ve come to love.

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against pregnancy. I also don’t know the details, as I’ve never been close to someone throughout the process. I’m not knowledgeable about it. I just don’t think it’s something to be thrown into a book without reason. Or, at least, not a main character without reason, as it seems to limit a lot of what they can do.

One series I read—a trilogy so far—had this problem. The first book was great. Two main characters, opposing forces. One is a man, the chosen saviour of the kingdom; the other, the daughter of the king, but no delicate princess. She was built up as a strong female character, one who fought her own battles and had a crafty, strategic mind. By the end of the first book, they get together, the second, they’re still together, but in the third, they’re married and she’s pregnant and…she takes a back seat the whole time. She’s written like an object. Despite being the queen, and someone who most certainly should be participating in strategy meetings (since the kingdom is at war) because of her great mind, she’s not. It’s disappointing. Then, she’s kidnapped offscreen—not even a scene of struggle to show for it—and for the rest of the book, it’s the main character’s duty to rescue her since she can do nothing herself. And she’s not even three months pregnant yet.

You may think, “Oh, the author is a man; he doesn’t understand that just because a woman is pregnant that she’s not useless!” because this is a general concern (with its own subreddit called Men Writing Women). That’s not the case. The author of this series was a woman, one who’s had multiple children, in fact, which is a reason why I was so confused that she’d write such a strong, female character so weakened by her first trimester.

Another example that comes to me is in Breaking Dawn, when Bella is pregnant with Edward’s child. Her pregnancy is a fast one, only 3 weeks total, and it’s written quite grotesquely—which is the aim. It’s a bit different, since the half-vampire child is physically draining her strength. Bella has never been my favourite character, but she didn’t want to be seen as weak, despite her ravaged body. That, at least, I appreciate in Stephenie Meyer’s writing (even though I still don’t understand the need for the pregnancy arc in the first place).

One great way to include it without actually including it was in the second Hunger Games book, in which Peeta announces that Katniss is pregnant to the whole country as a way of inciting rebellion against the Games. She’s not actually pregnant, and later on, a lie is told that she miscarried, but I laughed aloud at the ruckus he stirred up with his claim.

So far, however, my favourite interpretation of a pregnant woman in fiction comes from Rick Riordan in his series, the Trials of Apollo. Sally Jackson, at the beginning of the series, is heavily pregnant, about seven months in, and there’s no denying that she’s pregnant. Despite this, it hinders her in no way other than her wardrobe. She’s every bit as kind, caring, and absolutely ruthless as she was way back in the first Percy Jackson book. It’s only a short scene with her, and the next time Apollo and the gang see her, the baby has already been born, but she was not, nor made to seem, helpless in any way, and I was absolutely there for it.

You may have different opinions, and that’s fine. This is just my rant.

I’m interested, though. What books have you read that included a pregnant character and how was it handled?

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Pregnancy-inclusive Book Reviews:

The Trials of Apollo Book 1: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
The Hunger Games Book 2: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Infernal Devices Book 3: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
*The Aodh Generations Book 3: The Bane of Jushosh by Tiffany M. Rhys*
The Twilight Saga Book 4: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer