Basic Trope: A female villain seeks redemption after getting pregnant.
- Straight: Helena leaves her life of crime to keep her baby safe from harm.
- Exaggerated: Helena becomes a saint when she finds out she's pregnant.
- Downplayed: Helena's still a bad guy, but is noticeably more merciful to her enemies.
- Justified:
- Helena's boss is not fond of children.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids
- Inverted: Helena starts off as a good girl, but turns to a life of crime after she finds out she's pregnant.
- Helena is a villain, but she believes that Utopia Justifies the Means or is Only in It for the Money. Getting pregnant leads to her Jumping Off the Slippery Slope because now she's even more motivated to accomplish her goals, to ensure that her unborn child will have a better life.
- Subverted:
- Helena mulls it over a little, but in the end, she feels she can live a life of crime as a mother.
- Becoming pregnant changes Helena's goals, but she becomes more evil instead.
- Helena is not a criminal or a villainess, just a Hard-Drinking Party Girl.
- Helena decides she's going to have an abortion.
- Helena gives the baby up for adoption.
- Helena does not become pregnant, but she does find a Doorstop Baby at the entrance to her villainous lair.
- Double Subverted: Disastrous events convince her otherwise.
- When she finds out she's pregnant (and decides she's keeping it), Helena quits drinking and drugs, stops hanging out with her party-animal friends, goes Back to School, starts showing less skin, marries the baby's father quietly, and doing her best to act the part of a "respectable" wife and mother.
- When she gets to the clinic, she has second thoughts, and ultimately decides not to go through with the procedure. She decides she's going to keep the baby, and in order to do that, will need to give up her life of crime.
- Afterwards, she regrets giving the baby up, and decides to turn over a new leaf, in hopes of getting the child back from the adoptive parents later.
- She decides to raise the child, and to give up her villainous ways.
- Parodied: Bob decides to give up his villainous ways of jaywalking when Helena entrusts him with the care of 2 baby goldfishes.
- Zig Zagged: Helena vows to give up the life of crime when she finds she's pregnant, only to be forced to start working in a minorly evil job to pay her maternity fees
- Averted: The thought of defecting doesn't cross Helena's mind at all.
- Enforced: The writers want to redeem her by showing her conscience.
- Lampshaded: "It's funny how a mother's love can change a person so drastically."
- Invoked: Helena's pregnant due to a plant who was placed by people looking to get her out of the way.
- Exploited: Now that Helena is good, the heroes are one huge step closer to defeating the Big Bad.
- Defied: Helena decides to put her child up for adoption to continue her life of crime.
- Discussed: "Do you really think we can trust Helena?" "Well, why not? She really seems to want to give her child a good life."
- Conversed: "This woman spent the last season kicking a whole kennel of puppies. I have a hard time seeing her quitting villainy altogether, even with the baby involved."
- Deconstructed:
- The stress from suspicion by the heroes and hatred by the villains results in Helena having a miscarriage. This only serves to make her worse.
- Alternatively, Diane, Helena's daughter, strangled by her mother's measures for keeping her safe, ends up becoming a criminal in her quest for freedom. Best laid plans...
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