In Jennifer Roberson’s Deepwood, one of* the main characters is very pregnant and gives birth while the rest of the caravan is being attacked.
*It’s an ensemble piece, so I wouldn’t call her the main character, but the book often cuts to her POV and her actions are among those that move the plot, so I’d say she counts.
In The Grapes of Wrath Rose of Sharon sort of saves the day by
Breast-feeding a starving man with the unused milk of her stillborn baby (they left this part out of the movie)
Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son) borrowed this plot arc for his novel “The Fireman”
Laura Bruce is pregnant throughout Sharyn McCrumb’sThe Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.
A friend of mine wrote a frontier romance novel where the heroine got pregnant three times over the course of the story. I consider her meticulously researched and vividly described passage on giving birth in the 1800’s to be one of the most effective forms of birth control ever.
Could Lady Jessica in Dune be considered a heroine? She was pregnant with Alia for a good part of the novel. It has been awhile since I read the book, but didn’t she teach the Fremen the weirding way and perform some other hands-on tasks to help the plot along?
I’m pretty sure Joanna Brady was pregnant during at least one of the novels in J.A. Jance’s eponymous series.
Gretchen and Julie in **1632 ** by Eric Flint. (TV Tropes said another woman in the battle at the end was also pregnant, but I’m not sure which one. Rita, maybe?)
Thursday Next in The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde.
The last book of the Queen & Country novels by Greg Rucka (a continuation of his comic series), if I remember correctly, has Tara Chace pregnant. I don’t recall if she was in early pregnancy, if it was dealt with in a quick montage, or what. But she is the hero of the series, for certain.
Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels books now have a pregnant heroine.
Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson series about a grim reaper have several books featuring said reaper pregnant.
Daenerys Targaryen was pregnant through most of A Game of Thrones, though not in the rest of the series.
Cool. Thanks for the tip. I’m on it.
In the Search of Mavin the Manyshaped the title character discovers she’s pregnant which prevents her from shape shifting. But it is the third book in a series that is itself a sequel so it may be hard to get into from the start.
Talulla Rising has a severe case of antiheroine. She is pregnant in the beginning of the book, but I think she has the kid pretty early on; it’s been a few years since I’ve read it. Whether she saves the world or not is debatable; the main goal is to prevent humans from murdering all the bloody monsters like the protagonist.
The Wheel of Time series has something of an ensemble cast (with various sections of various books following the viewpoints of people other than the Dragon Reborn), but Queen Elayne of Andor is pregnant (with the Dragon Reborn’s children (twins)) throughout the last three books, and she’s definitely a main character.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, but IIRC Meg is pregnant for A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L’Engle.
Wasn’t Ayla pregnant for part of Clan of the Cave Bear?
And I’m pretty sure there was some pregnancy in McCaffery’s Pern books, too.
Any chance “Enemy Mine” (from the story of the same name) might fit? The Drac is a s/he, but pregnant all the same.
Yes, And Iza was pregnant when she found Ayla, too.
The main character in “Salvage The Bones” is newly pregnant - and 14 years old.
Nobody’s mentioned Rosemary’s Baby?