Hide Your Pregnancy



Nowadays, when an actress gets pregnant, this event is usually written into the show as the character getting pregnant. However, sometimes the writers decide not to include the pregnancy, perhaps because it can't be written in convincingly, it doesn't fit with the storyline, or perhaps it's just that Status Quo Is God. In this case, they commonly resort to various (ineffective) tricks to avoid the actress' bump being noticed, such as
 * The actress wears lots of loose, baggy clothes.
 * The sudden, unprecedented wearing of heavy overcoats etc. which are much too big for her, with absolutely no explanation—particularly for a character who normally wears form-fitting clothes.
 * She carries lots of bags in front of her belly
 * She sits down a lot; in the late stages of pregnancy, this often entails some sort of blanket over herself to hide the bump. Such "supine shots" are filmed for prolonged periods, with no direct views of her ever actively getting up or sitting down.
 * The cameramen just make sure to never get shots below their upper chest.
 * The camera shoots her from far away if they need full body shots.
 * She suddenly wears black. Lots and lots of black... without a funeral (or Matrix) in sight (for clarification - black helps hide the shadow that the actress' suddenly much larger stomach casts, as well as its shape).
 * The excessive use of body-doubles for all revealing body-shots with the face conspicuously obscured—after which the camera will flash conveniently back to the actress with her face showing and body obscured. (Naturally, this sad trick only makes the attempt at deception more obvious).
 * Worst of all, is the attempt of wearing high heels etc. to make her look more height-weight proportionate; this succeeds only in making her appear even more like "the elephant in the room" by towering over all else around her with her increased size. Even worse, when she walks, she typically becomes a lumbering hulk, lurching and teetering around on the heels like Frankenstein's Monster due to her increased height and decreased balance.

Alternatively, the character might just be written to put on a lot of weight, due to a sudden "eating binge" or whatever (see "Frasier" below). Note that this trope does not include cases where the actress' pregnancy is written into the show - that's Reality Subtext.

Film

 * The Big Steal took extra long to film due to Robert Mitchum's stint in jail for marijuana possession in the middle of production. His pregnant co-star, Jane Greer, is visibly thicker in the waist in the last scenes shot while Mitchum himself is thinner due to life on a prison farm.
 * In the original British version of Death at a Funeral, Keeley Hawes underwent various stages of pregnancy throughout filming. The last scene in the film with her has her sit down on a sofa where her in-film (and real-life) husband is lying down, whereupon he quickly hides her belly by putting his legs across her lap.
 * In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Helena Bonham Carter filmed her earliest scene while pregnant, where her bump was very poorly hidden by a huge leather belt. It was so blatant that some people were wondering if Voldemort really does have mad game with the bitches.
 * Also, Bonham Carter was pregnant during the filming of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, resulting in magical size-changing breasts over the course of the movie.
 * Shirley Jones was discovered to be pregnant during the filming of the 1962 movie The Music Man; her costumes were designed to hide that fact. In an interview, it is pointed out that if you look very closely during certain scenes, you can see the bump.
 * In the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice, Susannah Harker (who played Jane Bingley) was pregnant with her first child during filming. However, the cut of the dresses and the period fashions made this much easier to obscure than in many other productions, not to mention the fact that a good portions of the scenes she's in involve her sitting down anyway.
 * Claudia Black was very obviously pregnant by the time filming began on the movie Stargate: Continuum, and there was no way to convincingly hide it even in the opening scene, where she's carrying a big sci-fi gun and wearing a loose camouflage fatigue jacket. Similarly to her role in SG-1 Season 9, she vanished (literally, due to, then showed up again as the System Lord Qetesh, wearing a too-large dress and usually having the direct line of sight to her stomach blocked by different objects or shooting angles.
 * Veronica Lake was pregnant at the start of the filming of Sullivan's Travels, but her character wasn't. Fortunately, as she was playing a hobo, she could convincingly wear loose, baggy clothes. The rest of the time, the greatest costume designer in Hollywood was hard at work making her look completely innocuous.
 * The Swinging Cheerleaders a 70s exploitation comedy, averted this. Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith neglected to tell anybody involved with the production that she was five months pregnant. Never mind that her part called for several topless scenes, and that her character was a virgin.
 * Penélope Cruz became pregnant during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, so her sister (also an actress) acted as her stand-in during some of the more action-heavy scenes.
 * Averted in Fido. Carrie-Anne Moss's real life pregnancy was written into the film, where her character mentions being pregnant, and the husband commenting that he can't afford to pay for another funeral.
 * In Legally Blonde 2, they filmed an introductory scene some time after the main shooting was completed. At that point Reese Witherspoon was obviously pregnant, so the scene consists of women sitting and talking, shot only from the chest up. It's pretty awkward and obvious.
 * About midway through the film production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, Madonna discovered that she was pregnant with her first child. The film directors went to great lengths to cover up the possibility of her "Eva Peron" getting pregnant, even if it meant removing some scenes of her being carried out of the church for fear she might slip.
 * Catherine Zeta-Jones during Chicago, that's why she never shows her stomach.
 * Filipino actress Sharon Cuneta was pregnant with her daughter KC Concepcion when she was filming Bituwing Walang Ningning (lit. 'Star Without a Sparkle'). It became apparent that Sharon's baby bump was starting to grow, and as such, the film crew had to either film her from the chest up or use various objects such as bookshelves and lampshades in order to conceal Sharon's growing womb.

Literature

 * In But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, Lorelei abandons her movie career at expectant motherhood, alluding to the example of a movie actress who was discovered to be pregnant halfway through filming, which got to the point where her scenes had to be filmed "showing nothing but her head sticking up over the top of a bush or looking out of a window."
 * A rare in-universe example is featured in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Live Action TV
"Kari: Protecting for two!"
 * The writers of All My Children decided not to write in Sydney Penny's pregnancy, instead using only tight shots of Penny's face. This resulted in a very funny moment for her and Justin Bruening, when their two characters were arguing over whether to have a baby, while Penny was 8-1/2 months pregnant.
 * Subverted, or played with in Angel. Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy was hidden, but her character's secret pregnancy became a plot twist. One she eventually revealed to the other characters by wearing an Obviously Evil black evening gown.
 * Jennie Garth (Kelly Taylor) in Beverly Hills, 90210.
 * Tamsin Greig in Black Books, who is hidden not just by the normal techniques, including lots of long scarves, but also because it looks like she's constantly smoking and drinking though the entire series.
 * Holly Marie Combs in Charmed. The most blatant effort to hide her belly was the "headless horseman" episode. They wrote her first one in, but her second pregnancy was hidden during season eight to preserve the timeline they had been setting up.
 * During the third season of Cheers, both Rhea Perlman (Carla) and Shelley Long (Diane) became pregnant; Perlman's pregnancy was written into the script (as the result of a fling with Frasier's mentor, Dr. Bennett Ludlow), whereas Long was mostly shot from the neck up or behind the bar.
 * An actress on Coronation Street playing a post-op transsexual became pregnant; she started by sitting down a lot, and later went on holiday to keep things from getting too obvious.
 * When Phylicia Rashad of The Cosby Show got pregnant, she had to stand/sit with various household objects in front of her belly. One scene had her sitting down behind a gigantic teddy bear, strange as that may sound. Some episodes excluded Clair entirely, but she was mentioned to be working late or out of town.
 * They also cut a hole out in Cliff/Clair's bed so that when they were in it, Rashad's stomach wasn't elevated.
 * When AJ Cook got pregnant toward the end of the third season of Criminal Minds, a very token effort was made to do this - interestingly, though, it wasn't to pretend that Cook/JJ wasn't pregnant at all, but just to vaguely cover the fact that due to Real Life Writes the Plot factors in other areas, JJ's pregnancy was supposed to start a bit later than AJ's did.
 * When CSI: NY actress Anna Belknap, who plays Lindsay Monroe, became pregnant, they used the close-up method with varying success.
 * The second time they just wrote it into the storyline, thankfully.
 * Dallas' Victoria Principal was only shown either conspicuously absent, or sitting down with a table conveniently in front of her for much of the season, while she was filmed from the chest up.
 * Desperate Housewives got very creative with this, using everything from giant gingerbread castles to Mrs. McClusky's head to hide Marcia Cross' pregnancy. But when the plot really could not get away with this, they just called in a stunt double. One episode required Bree to climb a ladder, hiding the other actress's face.
 * And yet, Bree's first plotline upon Marcia's return was FAKING a pregnancy.
 * This is why Zoe, in the Doctor Who 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors", specifically a vision of her that's tricking the Doctor, is wearing a layer of bubblewrap over her clothes.
 * Near the middle of Season 5 of The Drew Carey Show, Christa Miller suddenly started sitting/lying down a lot while covered up, or wearing baggy and/or black clothing that she never wore previously. Her pregnancy couldn't be written into the script because her character was just starting her romance with Drew. However, she did show up pregnant as a "gag" in Episode 19, "What's Wrong with this Episode III" since the character wasn't supposed to be pregnant. (Ryan Stiles also showed up pregnant as "Lewis--" except that Christa Miller's wasn't simply a basketball under her shirt, as her widened overall girth showed even from behind).
 * Patricia Heaton spent some seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond very visibly pregnant when Debra certainly wouldn't be; they mostly went the baggy clothes route, which was...somewhat weird when the focus of the episode was Raymond moping about how he's not attractive enough for Debra, considering she looks like she's smuggling a basketball under a very loose shirt
 * Jane Leeves got pregnant late in Frasier's run, and it was written as Daphne becoming fat due to compulsive eating, complete with a Fat Suit; and she left the series for Jane Leeves to have the baby, by having Daphne going away to a spa in order to lose the weight (With the in-joke that Niles went to see her there, and she had "just lost 9 pounds, 12 ounces".) In the final season, Leeves' second pregnancy was merely incorporated into the storyline.
 * In the last season of Friends Courteney Cox became pregnant and hid it by wearing baggy clothes. The pregnancy could not be written into the show because Cox's character, Monica, was not supposed to be able to get pregnant, and was adopting at the end of the series.
 * Also, Ross's second Romantic False Lead, Emily, only showed up during phone calls, and even then it was only her head. Why? Her actress had become pregnant.
 * General Hospital used this where actress Jacklyn Zeman got pregnant. It couldn't be written in because her character Bobbie had had a hysterectomy.
 * Kelly Rutherford was pregnant during the second season of Gossip Girl. At first they succeeded pretty well in hiding it, but towards the end they got really sloppy.
 * Chyler Leigh's pregnancy in season five of Greys Anatomy was hidden in the classic manner. There was also one episode having her constantly eating because Mark and Derek were fighting. Ellen Pompeo's pregnancy during season six was hidden by having her character donate part of her liver to her father. Jessica Capshaw's pregnancy during season seven will also be hidden, while Sarah Drew and Jessica Capshaw's third pregnancy aren't being written in during season eight.
 * Both Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders were pregnant in the fourth season of How I Met Your Mother. It was much easier for Smulders given how tall she is, but Robin did spend most of her camera time sitting down. For Hannigan, her pregnancy resulted in the typical motions of baggy clothing, Lily suddenly incorporating guitar playing into her teaching style, and a lot of scenes behind things.
 * Groundwork for a pregnancy storyline was even put in motion that would have provided an easy way around the whole issue. A perfect plan, and to top it off, a later episode features Lily in a hot-dog eating competition. The result? A visibly expanded stomach. (This gag was also used on Titus). The end of the pregnancy and birth was covered by.
 * However, when Alyson got pregnant again in season seven, her character was already pregnant, so no need to hide it.
 * Barbara Eden in the first episodes of I Dream of Jeannie.
 * One of Lucille Ball's pregnancies was hidden during the very early episodes (possibly just the pilot?) of I Love Lucy.
 * Averted with her second pregnancy: the Moral Guardians wanted her to do this, as pregnancy was a taboo subject in media at the time, but she refused, and the episode where Lucy gives birth wound up setting a new Nielson record. Since the word 'pregnant' couldn't be used on TV, the show coined (or at least popularized) the term 'expecting'.
 * Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia averted this when Kaitlin Olsen became pregnant. It was written into the series with an entire episode devoted to the Gang trying to find out the identity of the father, they never find out but Dee knows and she's not telling..
 * However; zig-zagged because a couple of episodes had used the classic tricks of shooting her at an angle, putting something in front of her, or only having her visible from the chest up in certain shots. You can especially see this in the swimming pool episode.
 * When JAG actress Catherine Bell became pregnant, Mac was appointed as a judge, to allow her to sit behind a big judge desk. (Military judges don't wear robes.)
 * Kate And Allie put Kate in a hospital bed with a foot injury. A later episode was told largely in flashback, during the time when Kate was pregnant with her daughter Emma.
 * By Season 8 of The King of Queens, Leah Remini, whose extremely-slim figure was shown center-screen as a ratings-device for most of the series, had ballooned up to almost twice her original weight due to her season 6 pregnancy (shortsightedly, this was written out of the script by the Hollywoood sitcom-wizards who gave Carrie a miscarriage before she even started gaining weight and resorted to the standard tricks throughout the sixth season). Even more absurdly, her blimping-out is never noticed or mentioned by anyone in the series, despite that 1) the original script made an entire episode-joke about how she had a family history of women gaining a lot of weight after age 30, and 2) the entire series was more or less a non-stop "running fat-joke" about Kevin James's weight-condition.
 * When Mariska Hargitay of Law and Order Special Victims Unit got pregnant, Olivia Benson held large folders in front of her, wore thick, heavy winter coats, and eventually temporarily left town on an undercover assignment for the FBI. At one point she held a coat in front of her while wearing a thick jacket. The overcoat in question wouldn't have been able to fit over the jacket she was wearing.
 * The Lawrence Welk Show did this whenever a female member of the cast became pregnant, which was quite often.
 * When Gina Bellman of Leverage was pregnant, Sophie's stomach was hidden (in the same episode!) by being in a coffin, oh, and HOLDING A BOMB TO HER STOMACH. At the end of the episode, she goes on a journey to "find herself"; the next episode, she's only present in phone calls from the main team, usually shot from the chest up behind a bar or in the back seat of a cab.
 * In the second season of Life, Sarah Shahi's pregnancy was utilized very well to further the story arc: Dani Reese goes off to interview for a job in the FBI, only to be used as a pawn by people in the conspiracy. This allows for the occasional chest-up shot of her while the rest of the cast is solving the mystery of the week.
 * Katey Segal became pregnant twice during the run of Married With Children, the first time in season 6, Peg actually was pregnant, it stayed for half a season, then it was retconned into a dream after she miscarried in real life, later on in season 9 or 10 during her second pregnancy her stomach was either obscured by an object or not always shown on screen.
 * When Traylor Howard got pregnant during the fourth season of Monk, she was usually filmed chest up in the usual way. However, in one episode her character Natalie is uncomfortable being around an old, obsessive boyfriend (played by Sean Astin!) and stuffs a pillow under her shirt so he'll think she's pregnant, allowing them to shoot her normally.
 * Completely averted with Kari Byron of MythBusters, with the show being a non-fiction science series and all. Because of her pregnancy, she couldn't participate in the hangover myth. Didn't stop her from enjoying Grant and Tory's discomfiture and their Hangover Sensitivity way too much, though. She also exercised extra precautions when doing gun myths.


 * Parodied on Thirty Rock. In-universe, Avery is trying to hide her pregnancy from her superiors. Cue her carrying around ridiculously oversized objects, and coaxing a friend into "wizard robes" fashionable.
 * This may have been lampshade hanging for Tina Fey's own pregnancy which was becoming visible at that time.
 * The Nanny provides the page image of Lauren Lane, who played C.C Babcock.(Out of character as she's portrayed as being hopeless at attracting men). They even did some Lampshade Hanging with this one by having her carry a poster with "Baby" on it in front of her, and by making references to the Seinfeld example.
 * They also hid both of Rachel Chagall's pregnancies. Her character Val was even more hopeless at attracting men, so they were forced to hide them as well. Hers was especially noticeable in the final season because they were trying to hide her (real) pregnancy while she was standing beside Fran Drescher in the middle of a (fake) pregnancy.
 * Newhart had Julia Duffy carry around a pillow for half a season.
 * In Numb3rs, while Diane Farr was pregnant, FBI Agent Megan Reeves was mostly limited to desk jobs.
 * In the second half of the fourth season of The Office, Angela Martin was strictly confined to her workspace behind a chest height wall due to her pregnancy.
 * When Amy Poehler became pregnant for the second time during Parks and Recreation, the producers decided to just write and film as many episodes as possible before she had to go on maternity leave, rather than taking a hiatus between the second and third seasons. This resulted in increasing amounts of bump-camouflaging ruffled blouses and creative clipboard and desk placement during the first six episodes of season three. Unfortunately, NBC decided to push back the season première to January of 2011, rather than the expected September 2010 première date, rendering the creative team's efforts unnecessary.
 * Olivia Colman in Series 4 of Peep Show was carefully filmed to avoid revealing that she was pregnant.
 * Averted, however, in the second series of That Mitchell and Webb Look, filmed around the same time, in which she appears heavily pregnant throughout. Kind of helps that it's a sketch show, however.
 * This happened to Prison Break's only actress at the time, Sarah Wayne Callies. Since most of the pregnancy coincided with the production hiatus between seasons 2 and 3, pregnancy hiding was only needed at the end of season 2, hence her The birth and first few weeks of motherhood coincided with the first six or so episodes of season 3, so the plot was broken with Callies' character being MIA for that time, but some Executive Meddling ended up with
 * A curious aversion in Property Ladder; In the British version Sarah Beeny practically became a walking continuity error due to her pregnancy. Since the nature of the show involves following the progress people are making in renovating homes over an extended period of time, the inserted segments involving Beeny would frequently shift between not-pregnant and heavily pregnant over several episodes (or, in certain extreme cases, the same episode) depending on when they were filmed, with little apparent attempt on the part of the producers to hide or cover this up. Then again, it's real life and as noted occurs over an extended period of time, so they probably weren't that bothered about it.
 * In Rizzoli and Isles, Sasha Alexander's second pregnancy wasn't written in. The character wore very tight clothing, so it was obvious to the viewers she was pregnant towards the end of the first season.
 * Roseanne tried to do this with Laurie Metcalf's pregnancy. They started with loose clothing that got larger and larger and then resorted to putting things in front of her(the most memorable moment being when Jackie sits in the bathtub with a heavy quilt over her when she, Dan and Roseanne get high on twenty year old pot). However, Metcalf ended up with one of the biggest baby bumps ever and they were forced to write in a one night stand conception so they didn't have to remove her from the rest of the season.
 * Billie Piper was pregnant during the filming of the second series of The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl. Obviously a pregnancy couldn't be written in, so a body double was used for nude scenes and Belle began wearing baggy, unflattering dresses. It becomes quite intrusive when you know about it, as sex scenes involve tight close-ups on her face, then shots of her body from the shoulders down.
 * Julia Louis-Dreyfus became pregnant twice during the course of the run of Seinfeld. The first time happened during the hiatus between seasons 3 and 4, so it wasn't as big a problem; the actress was absent from the first two shows of season 4 and made very brief appearances in the next two (Elaine was said to be vacationing in Europe with her shrink), then was back to work full-time by show 5. The second pregnancy, however, occurred during the middle of season 8. The producers resorted to the full bag of tricks to mask it, including baggy clothing, shooting her from behind counters, and having the actress hold bags or pillows - and one time, Mickey (a Little Person friend of Kramer's) - in front of herself a lot. Because Elaine usually wore conservative clothing to start with, hiding it was not difficult.
 * In Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker was pregnant several times in mid-season, which the producers tried to cover up using body-doubles, and otherwise using suddenly baggy clothes and avoidance-shots of her normally lean body.
 * In the series finale of Six Feet Under, Brenda has just given birth to Willa, but Rachel Griffiths was still pregnant. She carried a very large purse and wore baggy clothes.
 * Jessica Hynes in Spaced. Daisy Steiner's tomboyish outfits helped to conceal her pregnancy, along with cruel comments from Daisy's "friend" Twist.
 * At the beginning of season nine of Stargate SG-1, Amanda Tapping's pregnancy was avoided by having Samantha Carter transferred temporarily to the R&D base at Area 51. Video communication involving her only showed her body from the shoulders up. Claudia Black also became pregnant with her first child at this time, and the writers solved this particular problem by  And for a hat trick, Lexa Doig also became pregnant. Since she only held a minor supporting role, her character completely vanished from the show without explanation.
 * When Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) got pregnant in real life during Star Trek: The Next Generation, her character had to go through this, with lots of close-ups or sitting down shots. It also helps that the character's uniform had always included a voluminous lab coat, so it was only noticeable if you were really looking.
 * McFadden learned she was pregnant shortly after filming one of Crusher's best episodes, "Remember Me," and doing her own (strenuous) stunts.
 * Star Trek: Deep Space Nine figured out a...let's say creative way of avoiding this trope with Nana Visitor's pregnancy by turning Major Kira into a sort of surrogate mother for the O'Briens.
 * Likewise, Roxanne Dawson (Lt. Torres) of Star Trek: Voyager . The writers considered writing her pregnancy into the plot, but decided against it, resulting in a long period in which her character was never shown from the chest down and the big coat trick (except for a two-part episode set in the holodeck where the character was forced by aliens who had taken over the ship into portraying a pregnant woman). Amusingly enough, her character later became pregnant. Also due to her pregnancy there was only one Torres-focused episode in the whole season.
 * The large coat actually tipped off the savvy viewer that she was pregnant as the coat was modelled after the style of top worn by pregnant women in the US Army. Thus it was pretty obvious when and for how long she was pregnant.
 * Cynthia Watros was pregnant with twins during the second season if Titus, so her character Erin ended up breaking her leg and being in a wheelchair for several episodes.
 * Roma Downey's pregnancy couldn't be written into Touched By an Angel for obvious reasons. They went the standard baggy clothes, chest and up shots and lots of hiding behind plants/chairs/Andrew.
 * In Two and A Half Men, one of Charlie's former-girlfriends is shown as supposedly non-pregnant, despite that she's obviously at 8 months, draped utterly non-convincingly in a shawl which conceals nothing—particularly since her remaining clothing is skimpy at best, looking like she's smuggling a beach-ball. Later in the next season, she's shown at a much more modest weight—and as the new mother of a newborn infant which was written into the script, no less (but not because her character was supposed to be pregnant in her last appearance).
 * Ugly Betty's Alexis Meade (played by Rebecca Romijn) was written out for the same reason as the Coronation Street example above.
 * In The X-Files, Scully wore a lot of trench-coats and stood behind a lot of desks while Gillian Anderson was pregnant. Then she got abducted by aliens while Gillian Anderson was giving birth (i.e. she was absent from that episode). During this time there were a few shots of her being examined aboard the alien ship, including one where it looked like the aliens were pumping her belly full of air. Scully spent the next episode in a coma; by the next episode she was walking and talking again.
 * Word of God confirms that the Myth Arc was never intended, despite hints of alien conspiracies early in the series. It also confirms that Anderson's pregnancy was what jump-started the whole thing, since they had to explain away her absence as well as give development to then-minor characters like Director Skinner and the Cigarette Smoking Man, who was literally "an extra leaning on a shelf."
 * Rommie's body being destroyed and the Suspiciously Similar Substitute of Doyle as Badass Robot Girl during season 5 of Andromeda was due to Doig's pregnancy. During her pregnancy, she only appeared in chest up shots or as a disembodied head
 * Successful example on The Big Comfy Couch. Alyson Court was pregnant during her last season as Loonette, but the big clown costume hid it well.
 * Merlin did it with Emilia Fox, but not extremely well in the opinion of some fans.
 * Subverted in the famous Brady episode of Day By Day where Maureen McCormick played her Marcia Brady character while very obviously in late pregnancy and no one mentioned that anything was different.
 * Emily Procter on CSI: Miami.
 * Used on Due South in the third season, with the actress who played Frannie Vecchio.
 * Used for the latter half of season 6 of Bones, but then done away with when it was written into the script for the next season.
 * Old-fangled squeamishness over showing pregnant women on TV almost kept Marianne Faithfull from being featured on the 1965 special The Music of Lennon & McCartney. Paul McCartney insisted she be allowed to perform, so the producers compromised by filming her from the shoulders up when she sang "Yesterday." (She gave birth just nine days later!)
 * The actress who plays Kristen in Wilfred was pretty darn preggers throughout season 1.

Music Videos

 * In Annie Lennox's "Love Song For A Vampire," she was sitting down and wearing an Empire-style dress throughout.
 * Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" mostly has her in slimming outfits. Plus, the video has so much going on that you don't have time to check for a bun in the oven unless you know it's there.
 * Averted by T-Boz from TLC in the video for "Tight to Death," her duet with then-husband Mack-10, where her pregnancy is proudly emphasized. A rather warming scene shows the hardcore rapper putting an ear to his wife's belly (it was only a year later that she divorced him amid threats of domestic violence, but it's still a nice video).
 * In Madonna's video for "Music," she had to be shot from the front and almost always sitting down. She also commissioned a short action sequences from her favorite animation studio, to replace scenes she couldn't do. However, it was no secret that she was pregnant at the time, and it added a bit of subtext to the line "I want to dance with my baby".
 * In Whitney Houston's video for her cover of "I Will Always Love You," she is shown sitting in a chair on a stage as she sings. Since it was a Video Full of Film Clips from her movie The Bodyguard, this was easily done.
 * Within Temptation has Sharon. The video for "Sinéad," where Sharon wears a heavy coat and is only shown from the chest up.
 * Averted in "Someday" by Britney Spears which is basically a music video to celebrate her pregnancy.
 * Pat Benatar's video for "We Belong" tried to hide her pregnancy at the time with a large, drapey jacket.