Poll: Ten Pregnancy (and Delivery) Clichés ...

"The Exorcist" Linda Blair 1973 Warner Brothers

Morning (or anytime) sickness: the first hints of pregnancy are generally conveyed through public puking in the middle of some social activity (in the toilet if she can make it)... when she doesn't straight up pass out.

Matthew Broderick in The Cable Guy (1996)

Surprise!!! The news generally comes as a total surprise to the father who had no clue she could ever be pregnant. She generally struggles to reveal her pregnancy while he's too busy announcing some great news: a job promotion, a travel, or some plans he made that are (coincidentally) incompatible with a pregnancy.

Russell Crowe in Noah (2014)

Splash! Someone bring a "Wet Floor Sign"! Waters have just broken, and from the noise (with or without the popping balloon sound), you can tell it's a loss of epic proportions and thank God it's off-screen.

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Watch your step! There's only one way to cause a miscarriage in movies: a good old dramatic post-fight stair-fall.

Ewen Bremner in Trainspotting (1996)

Panic Room. And that's an understatement, when he realizes that the labour has started already, the husband or friend is as excited as if he had just swallowed an entire bottle of ecstasy pills, which shows in the reckless high-speed ride to the hospital. And he's so wrapped up in his own excitement (or panic) that he ends up forgetting the missus in the car.

John Hurt and Percy Edwards in Alien (1979)

It hurts! There's no labour lasting for hours, no epidural, no quietness whatsoever during the delivery, like Churchill, the movie has nothing to offer but "blood, toils, tears and sweat", that and a few hysterical cries, many 'push, push', followed by a last epic scream, then baby cries... and all is well that ends well.

Shirley MacLaine, John Forsythe, Edmund Gwenn, Jerry Mathers, and Mildred Natwick in The Trouble with Harry (1955)

Everything is fine... not... One of the most 'hilarious' 80's and 90's sight gags (besides the girl kicking the macho guy in the groin) was the guy who couldn't stand the sight of the delivery and inevitably, his eyes rolled back and his body fell backwards, diagonally of course. After all, it's a pregnancy, someone's gotta fall somehow.

Tim Robbins and Frank Darabont in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

I've been slimed... not, you wouldn't tell the baby went through a river of slimy organic matters to come out perfectly clean on the side, well, if not totally clean, he doesn't look exactly like the newborns you see in documentaries (shape and color-wise).

Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth in Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Is there a doctor in the house? Ah, good ol' dramatization, no matter how well-prepared she is, the heroine is always left alone at the crucial moment, far from any medical environment and it's too late anyway for the hospital (yes fast cinematic labour). But she's not quite alone, she's with the least likely character to be of any help, knowing nothing about 'birthin' babies' but who's got his shining moment and overcomes his/her fears (sometimes it's still a doctor, but not a specialist, or one who hasn't practised for years, or a supposedly incompetent drunkard)

Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn in Aliens (1986)

Get away from her (or him), you bitch... well, it's not said that way, but it comes to the same thing, the prospective mother, despite the agreement to give a couple her baby, finally changes her mind once she "discovered motherhood", much to the adoptive mother's devastation. Another variant is that one of the adoptive parents changes his mind (generally the father).