The Baby Trap/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A woman gets pregnant on purpose, in an attempt to keep her boyfriend or husband with her.

  • Played Straight: Alice tells Bob that she's on the Pill (she isn't), and that they don't need to use a condom. She gets pregnant and tells him.
  • Exaggerated: Alice has done this to two other guys before Bob.
  • Justified: Alice believes that Babies Make Everything Better, which is why she does this. She wants to find a way to keep Bob with her.
    • Alice and Bob aren't exactly in a healthy relationship or marriage.
  • Inverted: Bob pokes a tiny hole in Alice's diaphragm (or in his condom) so she'll get pregnant and have to stay with him.
    • Alternatively, Alice tells Bob she's not using any sort of birth control even though she secretly is, because Bob wants a baby and Alice doesn't.
    • Bob tells Alice he's pregnant to make her stay with him.
  • Subverted: Alice tells Bob she's pregnant, but she's lying.
      • Or, Alice is pregnant, but the child is most likely not Bob's; she tells him it is.
    • Alternatively, Alice tries sabotaging her birth control, but it doesn't work.
    • Or, Alice gets pregnant, tells Bob (who agrees to marry her), and either miscarries or has an abortion not long after the wedding.
  • Double Subverted: But then an official test from a doctor confirms that she really is pregnant.
    • A DNA test confirms that the child actually is Bob's.
    • But Bob stays with her even after the wedding.
  • Deconstructed: This is not guaranteed to work, nor will it solve their relationship problems. (It might just create some interesting new ones, however.) It is also considered a form of Domestic Abuse.
  • Reconstructed: Bob loves Alice unconditionally, even if she is a manipulative bitch, and marries her anyway. They work out their relationship problems, and both mature as people. And live Happily Ever After.
    • Alternatively, Bob gets out of this relationship and moves on, and finds a new girlfriend who treats him with love and respect. He may pay child support if the child is indeed his, but otherwise never has anything to do with Alice again.
  • Parodied: Alice has been taking baby aspirin instead of birth-control pills. Not because anyone's been tampering with them, but because she's Too Dumb to Live.
    • "Proposing" marriage this way is considered the norm.
  • Lampshaded: "I thought you said you were on the Pill!"
  • Averted: Alice does not get pregnant, and does not lie about or sabotage her birth control.
  • Enforced: Rule of Drama. May result in a Very Special Episode
  • Invoked: Alice stops taking her birth control pills, and has unprotected sex with Bob.
  • Defied: Alice believes this is unethical, and resolves to try and find other ways of fixing her relationship with Bob. Like talking about their problems in a civilized and non-accusatory manner.
  • Discussed: "I can't believe she did that!"
  • Conversed: "Yeah. A baby won't solve your problems."
  • Played For Laughs: Bob's male partner tells him that he's pregnant. Bob believes said partner.
  • Played For Drama: Bob is now going to be trapped in a relationship he doesn't want, or forced to pay child support for the next 18 years. What will he do?

Please don't leave me to go back to The Baby Trap; I'm pregnant with your child!

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