Some of these will make you laugh until your bump shakes. Some will make you cry in a way that feels good. Some will make you feel genuinely seen in the middle of an experience that can otherwise feel very lonely at 2am when you cannot sleep and your back hurts and you are quietly terrified about everything ahead.
Grab the snacks you are currently craving. Find the most comfortable position available to you right now. Press play.
These 23 movies are organized by mood because sometimes you want to laugh and sometimes you want to cry and sometimes you just want to watch something that understands what is happening to your body and your heart.
When You Want to Laugh
Juno (2007)
Still the best screenplay ever written about an unplanned pregnancy. Sixteen-year-old Juno MacGuff finds out she is pregnant, decides to give the baby up for adoption, and navigates the entire experience with a wit that is both hilarious and genuinely moving.
Elliot Page is extraordinary. Michael Cera is perfectly awkward. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the prospective adoptive parents add layers that make the film far more complex than its comedy packaging suggests. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned it completely.
Watch it when you want to laugh but also feel things. Especially good for the first trimester when you need something light that still takes the subject seriously.
Knocked Up (2007)
A one-night stand between Alison (Katherine Heigl) and Ben (Seth Rogen) results in an unplanned pregnancy that neither of them saw coming. What follows is a genuinely funny and surprisingly honest look at two people trying to figure out whether to build a life together because of a baby they did not plan.
Judd Apatow directs it with real warmth underneath all the comedy. Paul Rudd as the exhausted husband is quietly one of the funniest performances in the entire film. It is crass in places and deeply sweet in others and somehow both at once.
Baby Mama (2008)
Tina Fey plays an uptight single executive who hires Amy Poehler as her surrogate. Naturally, personalities collide the moment they become housemates.
Fey and Poehler have the kind of comedic chemistry that cannot be manufactured. Every scene they share is funnier than the last. It is not the most emotionally deep film on this list but it is one of the most reliably enjoyable. Perfect for a night when you just want to laugh without thinking too hard.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012)
Five couples. Five completely different pregnancy experiences. All running simultaneously in an ensemble comedy with a cast so large it should not work as well as it does.
Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, and Anna Kendrick each bring a different version of pregnancy to the screen. The scene in which Elizabeth Banks’ character abandons the fantasy of “glowing pregnancy” and admits everything is terrible is deeply cathartic for anyone who has ever felt the same way and been afraid to say it.
Nine Months (1995)
Hugh Grant at peak Hugh Grant, fumbling his way through his girlfriend’s pregnancy while being charming and useless in equal measure. It is a 90s romantic comedy and it knows exactly what it is.
Sweet, warm, genuinely funny in the way that only slightly dated comedies can be. Watch it with your partner for a low-stakes cozy evening with snacks.
Father of the Bride Part II (1995)
Steve Martin discovers his daughter and his wife are both pregnant at the same time. He does not handle it particularly well, which is the entire joke and also the entire heart of the film.
Martin Short returns as Franck, now planning baby showers instead of weddings. Diane Keaton is wonderful. This one is best watched with family, particularly with your own parents if they are about to become grandparents. The reactions in the room will be as entertaining as what is on the screen.
Junior (1994)
Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes the world’s first pregnant man after testing a fertility drug he has been developing with his colleague Danny DeVito.
It is objectively a ridiculous movie. It is also completely entertaining and strangely touching. Watch it when you want something so silly it temporarily takes your mind off every single thing that is happening to your body.
When You Want to Feel Something Real
Juno (2007)
Already listed above but worth noting again: this film earns both a comedy mention and a drama mention because it genuinely occupies both spaces. Watch it twice at different stages of your pregnancy and see which emotions land differently the second time.
Waitress (2007)
Keri Russell plays Jenna, a pregnant waitress trapped in a miserable marriage in a small Southern town who dreams of escape through her extraordinary pies. When an exciting newcomer arrives, she begins to hope for a different kind of life.
Adrienne Shelly directed it with tremendous warmth and the film has a tenderness that stays with you long after it ends. It is not a comedy exactly and not a drama exactly. It is something more honest than either. The ending lands differently when you are pregnant yourself. Watch it and see.
Tully (2018)
Charlize Theron plays Marlo, a mother of two who is overworked, depleted, and struggling to cope with the arrival of her third child. Her brother gifts her a night nanny named Tully who arrives and changes everything.
This is the most honest portrayal of postpartum exhaustion in mainstream cinema. It is uncomfortable in exactly the right way. Watch it before the baby arrives so you know what to ask for and who to call when things feel impossible. The ending requires a second watch to fully appreciate.
Away We Go (2009)
Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski play expectant parents on a long road trip across the country visiting friends and family, trying to figure out where to raise their child and what kind of parents they want to be.
Quiet, funny, genuinely thoughtful about what it means to build a life for a baby when you are still building one for yourself. It does not have a tidy resolution which is part of why it resonates. Watch it with your partner for the conversations it will start after the credits roll.
Baby Boom (1987)
Diane Keaton plays a high-powered Manhattan executive whose orderly life is completely upended when she inherits a toddler from a distant cousin. She moves to Vermont, starts an organic baby food business, and slowly figures out what she actually wants.
Funny, sharp, and surprisingly emotional. A great watch for any mom who is worried about what motherhood will do to her identity. Spoiler: she keeps both.
Documentaries Worth Watching
The Business of Being Born (2008)
Produced by Ricki Lake, this documentary examines the maternity care system in the United States, looking at the history of hospital births, the rise of interventions, and the growing movement toward midwife-led and home birth options.
It has a clear point of view in favor of natural birth, so watch it with that context in mind. But regardless of what kind of birth you are planning, it raises important questions worth thinking about before your due date. Knowledge helps.
Babies (2010)
Four babies. Four countries. Namibia, Japan, Mongolia, and the United States. One documentary that follows all four children through their first year of life.
No narration. Very little dialogue. Just babies being babies in completely different environments, proving that humans are remarkably adaptable and that babies are universally, entirely themselves regardless of where they are born. It is beautiful, funny, and oddly calming. Perfect for a late pregnancy evening when you need something gentle.
40 Weeks (2014)
Follows multiple women throughout their pregnancies through interviews and intimate footage, documenting the physical and emotional changes of all 40 weeks in a way no single narrative film can match.
For anyone who wants to feel less alone in what they are experiencing, this documentary provides the camaraderie that only hearing other women’s honest voices can give. Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Orgasmic Birth (2008)
Despite the title, this documentary is serious and genuinely important. It explores what happens when women are supported to experience birth in a positive, empowered way and what the research says about outcomes when fear is reduced and autonomy is respected.
Provocative but not sensational. Worth watching alongside The Business of Being Born for a fuller picture of birth options before you finalize your birth plan.
For the Third Trimester Specifically
Father of the Bride Part II (1995)
Already mentioned but deserves a second callout here. In the third trimester when everything is both exciting and overwhelming, a warm, funny family film that ends with everyone being fine is exactly what the doctor ordered.
She’s Having a Baby (1988)
Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern play newlyweds navigating the expectations of family, the reality of adult life, and an unexpected pregnancy that brings everything into sharp focus.
A John Hughes film that is more emotionally complex than his teenage comedies. The final sequence is genuinely beautiful and will hit differently when you are close to your own due date. Bring tissues.
Due Date (2010)
Robert Downey Jr. is desperately trying to get home to be present for the birth of his child. Zach Galifianakis keeps making that impossible. Road movie comedy chaos ensues.
It is loud and sometimes exhausting to watch, which honestly makes it a good third trimester film because it reminds you that babies are already causing delightful havoc before they have even arrived. Watch it when you need to laugh at something completely ridiculous.
Comedies That Are Secretly About Something Bigger
Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)
Bridget, now forty-something, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and genuinely unsure which of two men is the father. Both are willing to step up. She is not sure what she wants.
Funnier than the second film and more emotionally grounded than people give it credit for. Renée Zellweger slides back into the character like no time has passed at all. Worth watching for the delivery scene alone, which manages to be simultaneously comic and genuinely moving.
The Switch (2010)
Jennifer Aniston decides to have a baby using donated sperm. Her best friend Jason Bateman, secretly in love with her, makes a terrible decision the night of her insemination party. Seven years later the truth comes out.
A rom-com with more emotional substance than the premise suggests. The scenes between Bateman and the child are quietly lovely. Watch it in the second trimester when you are feeling sentimental about connection and family.
I Don’t Know How She Does It (2011)
Sarah Jessica Parker plays a working mother managing a career, a husband, two children, and a pregnancy in a state of constant, relatable barely-managed chaos.
It is not a perfect film but it is an honest one. Any woman who has ever tried to do too many things at once and felt guilty about all of them will recognize herself here. Best watched with a large snack and no agenda for the rest of the evening.
Parenthood (1989)
Steve Martin leads an extraordinary ensemble cast through a sprawling portrait of one extended family navigating parenting at every stage. Children, teenagers, adult children, and grandchildren all appear in a film that somehow makes every stage of the journey feel both terrifying and worth it.
Ron Howard directed it with genuine love for all of his characters, even the difficult ones. It is funny and sad and warm in a way that very few films manage to be simultaneously. Watch it early in your pregnancy for a long view of what lies ahead. It is encouraging in exactly the way you need.
Wrapping It Up
Nine months is a long time to be on the couch some evenings. These 23 films are for those evenings.
Watch the comedies on the hard days. Save the documentaries for when you are ready to think seriously about birth and what you want from it. Keep Juno and Waitress and Tully close for the moments when you need to feel understood by something more than a book.
You have excellent taste in timing. Being pregnant is one of the few genuinely good excuses to watch films for hours and call it self-care. Enjoy every minute.