# Novels with pregnant heroines? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671 "2017-03-08T03:11:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/1 "2017-03-08T03:11:30Z")
Let’s define heroine as not only the protagonist of a novel, but one who saves the day. Maybe through police work, maybe through solving mysteries, or maybe through supernatural ability…in any case she’s a hands-on type of character, who is also expecting a baby during the novel. The pregnancy doesn’t need to be the main focus of the story, ftr. In Kelley Armstrong’s **Broken** the protagonist, a werewolf, Elena Michaels is pregnant with twins and continues to be her usual kickass self. I assume that Laurell K. Hamilton’s character Merry Gentry \*eventually \*did end up pregnant, but I stopped reading before then. If Fargo was based on a book it’d go into this list too, but I really am looking for books… Who else has a world (or maybe just a neighborhood) to save while pregnant? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/2 "2017-03-08T03:33:12Z")
_Stork Raving Mad_, by Donna Andrews, in her Meg Lanslow mystery series. She’s pregnant with twins, and has to solve a murder. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/3 "2017-03-08T03:38:39Z")
Frannie Goldsmith in Stephen King’s “The Stand” is pregnant throughout the novel and delivers just before the end. No one knows if her baby will survive the Super Flu. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/4 "2017-03-08T03:50:26Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Frannie Goldsmith in Stephen King’s “The Stand” is pregnant throughout the novel and delivers just before the end. No one knows if her baby will survive the Super Flu. That’s who I came here to suggest. He does. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/5 "2017-03-08T03:57:28Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > That’s who I came here to suggest. > > He does. Interesting: in the 6-hour TV mini-series of “The Stand,” Frannie has a girl. They name her Abigail after Mother Abigail. That’s show-biz. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/6 "2017-03-08T03:58:34Z")
In _The Merry Wives of Maggody_, the last\* of the Maggody mystery series by Joan Hess, protagonist Arly Hanks is pregnant throughout. (Her pregnancy had been revealed at the end of the previous book.) \*So far, anyway, but after seven years it doesn’t look like Hess is ever going to pick up the series again, and Arly may never get to have that baby. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/7 "2017-03-08T04:14:03Z")
^ She’s gonna have a grown-up? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/8 "2017-03-08T04:18:23Z")
IIRC, in Red Storm Rising, Vigdis Agustdottir helps save her country of Iceland while four months pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/9 "2017-03-08T04:41:19Z")
Does Hester Prynne count as a heroine? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/10 "2017-03-08T05:16:17Z")
**Follow the River** is a fictionalized account of a historical event. The heroine starts the book pregnant and delivers in the midst of it. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/11 "2017-03-08T05:33:59Z")
Not a book, but Marge is pregnant in the movie **Fargo**. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/12 "2017-03-08T05:39:46Z")
Cordelia Vorkosigan in _Barrayar_. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/13 "2017-03-08T05:56:13Z")
Friday is pregnant during the last bit of Robert Heinlein’s _Friday_. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/14 "2017-03-08T06:02:29Z")
Hildy Johnson in _Steel Beach_ spends part of the novel pregnant (also part of it male and part of it asexual). Yeah, it’s a little complicated. Fawn in the _Sharing Knife_ tetralogy starts off pregnant but miscarries (actually, the baby is killed, then she miscarries). He’s not a heroine but Harry Dresden of the _Dresden Files_ was pregnant for at least a couple books, but it was only in _Skin Game_ that he learns the crushing headaches are due to being pregnant with a spirit child. BTW, it’s a girl. Yes, it’s complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/15 "2017-03-08T09:13:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Cordelia Vorkosigan in _Barrayar_. And while not the protagonist, Lady Alys as well. And then there’s those replicators… pregnancy is present throughout Bujold’s work, which I guess fits with her own remarks saying that all her books are about motherhood. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/16 "2017-03-08T12:30:27Z")
Doesn’t fulfill the OP at all but: In the award winning TV adaptation of John le Carré’s [The Night Manager](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399664/combined) English intelligence operative _Leonard Burr_ became _Angela Burr_. The part was played by the conspicuously pregnant [Olivia Colman](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1469236/?ref_=nmawd_awd_nm). She won a Golden Globe for her performance. ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/17 "2017-03-08T14:14:52Z")
One of the main characters in **Stirred** BY JA Konrath and Blake Crouch, a detective named Jack Daniels, is pregnant throughout the book. She may have been in the book before that–I don’t recall. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/18 "2017-03-08T14:19:25Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Does Hester Prynne count as a heroine? She’s certainly a heroine, but she has delivered Pearl by the time **The Scarlet Letter** begins. In L. M. Montomery’s **Anne’s House of Dreams** , the heroine is pregnant twice. (She’s Anne of Green Gables grown up, by the way.) Edit: Okay, I just reread the OP. I suppose Hester doesn’t exactly count as a heroine as defined, but she’s still not pregnant during the novel. As for Anne, I would argue that although she’s not saving the world, she is instrumental in the eventual rescue of another character who is in a desperate situation. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/19 "2017-03-08T14:27:39Z")
Scarlett O’Hara scandalizes society by going about her business while pregnant with her daughter Ella, in a time when pregnant woman stayed inside from the time they suspected they were pregnant. She’s my idea of a heroine, doing what has to get done regardless of society’s ideals. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671/20 "2017-03-08T15:37:14Z")
Valuable Korner in the novel _Mother of Pearl_ is pregnant throughout the novel. It’s kind of an important point, and the origin of the title. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-with-pregnant-heroines/781671.md?page=2)