History Main / MandatoryMotherhood

* In ''MuchAdoAboutNothing'' one argument used by Benedick on himself.

* In ''RomeoAndJuliet'', Romeo laments that Rosalind neglects her duty in this, cutting off her beauty from all posterity.
* In ''AllsWellThatEndsWell'', Parolles tells Helena that preserving virginity neglects this duty, which could produce ten virgins from losing hers.

* In ''FireEmblem: Genealogy of the Holy War,'' the fourth game in the series, every last female character recruited in the first half of the game has two kids if she falls in love with someone. One boy and one girl each, no exceptions. And it's a massive GenerationXerox for classes depending on who the fathers are.

* There is a prompt to "Do your part in repopulating species" from ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}''. However, this was a short time after a [[DepopulationBomb sterility field]] had gone down, so this is not so much an obligation to reproduce, so much as an announcement that people are finally free to make babies again.
* Any straight couple that engages in "woohoo" in ''TheSimsMedieval'' may produce a baby. Unlike in other Sims games, there is no way to prevent this.

* Discussed in the ''ForBetterOrForWorse'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheNewRetcons'', where Elly Patterson highly resents her brother and sister-in-law for not wanting children and deciding not to have them. She herself did not want kids but felt that she had to have them anyway. This was also why she lied and told everyone Georgia was infertile, cause to her that was the only 'acceptable' reason to avoid motherhood.

* One of the reasons Anthony is so despised in the ''ForBetterOrForWorse'' fandom is the [[UnfortunateImplications implied subtext]] that it was he who pressured his wife Thérèse into having a child that she didn't want by agreeing to be the primary care-giver, then reneging on the agreement just as Thérèse was going through postpartum depression. The reader is explicitly meant to see Thérèse as an unnatural monster for not wanting children in the first place (to the point where she wholesale abandons child, husband and all not much later) and Anthony as the poor put-upon hubby who 'tries to love' his wife despite her refusal to make them a 'real family'.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff500/fv00472.htm Florence regards it as a duty, since there are only 14 of her species.]] This precludes InterspeciesRomance -- she can't ask him to support puppies not his own.

* In ''ElfQuest'', nature decides when two elves are ready to have a child, and the elves aren't allowed to protest. This turns into a [[WordOfGod mate or get]] ''[[WordOfGod really]]'' sick situation for several elves, most prominently Dewshine, who ''hates'' the mate that was chosen for her by destiny. But since BabiesMakeEverythingBetter, she loves her ''child'' regardless. This trope gets twisted later -- nature seems to consider genetics ''and'' population when deciding which two elves are to reproduce. The Gliders, for example, have an ''inversion'' forced upon them: none of them had been able to conceive [[spoiler:aside from Winnowill via magic]] in centuries, despite very much wanting to have children among them, due to locking themselves in a mountain fortress with limited space. The Go-Backs, on the other hand, have an amazingly short lifespan because of their warring with trolls and living in harsh conditions and breed like any other mammals; when the Wolfriders mention Recognition, Kahvi is surprised that they still bother with that. As with [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality most things, the Wolfriders have the ideal balance]], as they reproduce often enough to maintain a cycle of life and death, but still have Recognition and only breed genetically superior children. Except for Pike, who was his father's first attempt at Healer-induced conception ''outside'' of Recognition.

-->--'''Ancient [[{{Confucius}} Neo-Confucian]] [[http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/TWR-04.html proverb]]'''

* In ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'', a civilian approaches Doc Cottle looking for an abortion, since she's pregnant out of wedlock and her home colony has taboos against it. But since the entire human race is now small enough to fit in a football stadium, President Roslin makes a tough call: outlawing abortions but allowing any expectant mothers to bring their child to be adopted, no questions asked.

* Gabrielle Solis from ''DesperateHousewives'' openly refused to have children for several seasons, then struggled with the idea and couldn't conceive, but finally gave birth to Juanita and later Celia between seasons. From that point all the leading characters of the show are moms.

** Likely adding to her distaste for this role is the fact that the BigBad's chosen partner for her is [[spoiler: her own half-brother, the product of the villain capturing and raping Lucy's long-lost mother, who it is also revealed, was against Lucy's father abandoning her, and never stopped looking for her. To sum up his offer - her as an incestuous birthing machine in the plans of a lunatic who invaded her home, got the boy she loves shot, and raped her mother to the point she ended her life-and all on a mistaken basis.]] Yeah. In the field of pushing the thought, 'You Must Birth My Heirs',he really didn't sell this one well.

* The Yuki-onna of ''RosarioToVampire'' are required to marry at seventeen and start producing children immediately, due to the fact that the average Yuki-onna hits menopause before hitting thirty, leaving very little time for them to produce the next generation of a race that can't afford to have anyone not contribute to the long-term survival of the species. Mizore doesn't want to participate... at least, not with the guy her family picked for her (She makes it QUITE clear that she is willing to go through with this tradition using Tsukune instead).

* In ''ElfenLied'', Lucy, being the "queen bee" of the Diclonius race, is the only one capable of actually birthing fertile Diclonii if she reproduces, as opposed to the sterile Silphelit drones that all Diclonii can create. The BigBad fully intends to use her to bring about the rise of their species. Lucy, however, ultimately decides that she has no interest in that and that she'd much rather see her species wiped out. Being [[PersonOfMassDestruction Lucy]], she succeeds.

* In ''{{Sinfest}}'',

* In the "MrsHawking" play series, the title character has no desire for marriage or children whatsoever. But we learn in the first installment that [[spoiler:she was at one point miserably pregnant with a baby she continually wished would just go away. When she finally bore the stillborn child, her husband was devastated and [[http://www.mrshawking.com/?p=169 she became wracked with guilt]] that it was her fault it had died. To this day, she still dislikes hearing or saying the name Gabriel, the name her husband wanted to give the boy.]]

* The ''AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfiction ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7808021/1/A-Year-of-Surprises A Year of Surprises]]'' has this ''seriously'' adhered to. When a nation goes through a period of prosperity, they go into heat and ''must'' have a baby (yes, even [[MisterSeahorse the men]]). If they try to resist it, they just get worse and worse, until they have sex with the closest person. If they try to abort the child, they just go into heat again until they actually give birth. By the time the story takes place, most of the nations just seem to view it as a necessary annoyance to put up with.

* In PoulAnderson's "Literature/{{Starfog}}", Graydal, believing her ship has slipped through to another universe and can't return, regrets that they did not come with an equal number of men and women and observes that they will have to avoid the more settled planets where PopulationControl means not all women bear children. The ''Jacavarrie'' concludes that they have evolved compulsive need to reproduce.

** Onan was killed by God for refusing to have a child with Tamar, his dead brother's wife, as per the laws of levirate marriage (in short, he was required to marry his brother's wife and their first son would be his brother's, to continue on his brother's family line). Of course, he told her he ''would''(thus avoiding public shaming and being cast out of his family) and then performed ''coitus interruptus'' to prevent it.

** And then Paul, writing in the New Testament, subverted the blazes out of it by saying it was fine for men ''and'' women not to marry, or marry, as they chose. [[note]](I Cor. 7, mostly the second half.)[[/note]]

Also, despite the name, this trope is not limited to female characters.

Maybe there's a problem in the HeirClubForMen and she doesn't want to be involved but, since she's married to the fella needing the heir, she can't readily escape it. Or she's in a society that's gone through a [[ApocalypseHow Societal Disruption]], which is urging every fertile woman to repopulate the species; but she has desires or concerns more important to her than [[SpeciesLoyalty the species]].

** Inverted with the Abyssals, who suffer divine (or at least infernal) punishment if they procreate. The Neverborn created them to ''get rid of'' all those pesky living creatures, damn it, not to go around making new ones!