Basic Trope: Pregnant women shouldn't drink alcohol.
- Straight: The visibly pregnant Alice refuses to drink any alcohol, claiming that it will kill her baby.
- Logical Extreme: Alice thinks she will miscarry if she accidentally swallows a drop of alcohol.
- Exaggerated: Alice abstains from alcohol, on the grounds that while (as far as she knows) she isn't pregnant now, she could become pregnant at any time and not even know it. Even if she's on birth control. Bonus points if she believes this in spite of the fact that she's a virgin, or hasn't had sex in ''years'', or is a cisgender lesbian who has only ever had sex with other cis women.
- Downplayed:
- Alice still drinks weak alcohol.
- Alice refuses to drink alcohol, claiming that her baby will suffer some harm.
- Justified: Truth in Television: Alice doesn't want her baby to suffer any complications.
- Inverted:
- The visibly pregnant Alice drinks alcohol until she has the figure of a beer keg.
- A pregnant dwarf notches up her alcohol consumption because she's "drinking for two" now. This is necessary to ensure her baby is born healthy.
- Gender Inverted: Bob refuses to drink any alcohol, claiming that it will kill his baby.
- Subverted:
- Alice is still allowed to drink alcohol.
- Alice is not pregnant.
- Alice lives in an era before water sterilization. Everyone drinks alcohol, including pregnant women, because it's less likely to make them sick than water is.
- Double Subverted:
- But she still avoids it because it upsets her stomach.
- But she is planning to become pregnant soon, so she doesn't want to take even the slightest chance.
- Pregnant women are still encouraged to drink water (filtered through cloth and boiled) rather than alcohol, because many stillbirths, miscarriages, and birth defects happen when mothers drink during their pregnancies.
- Parodied: Alice hesitantly takes a tiny, careful ship of a beer. No sooner than that she has sunk it, the baby suddenly explodes out of her stomach and punches her in the face, yelling at her "That will kill me, you dumbass!"
- Zig Zagged: Alice can drink beer without any problems for her baby, but a shot of wine will cause fetal alcohol syndrome.
- Averted:
- Alice still drinks alcohol while pregnant.
- Alice is not pregnant.
- Alice is of a species that lays eggs instead of having a pregnancy. Or, if they do have pregnancies, they're at least a species whose placenta doesn't directly intertwine her blood vessels with those of her fetus, making it far less likely that any sip or morsel of anything (alcoholic or otherwise) would hurt the baby.
- Enforced: The writers wanted Alice to continue drinking during her pregnancy, but the Moral Guardians wouldn't let them because it would be a bad example.
- Lampshaded: "Oh, Alice isn't allowed to drink now that she's pregnant."
- Invoked: Alice is a supernatural creature that's allergic to alcohol, so she pretends to be pregnant so that she has an excuse for not drinking.
- Exploited: Alcohol is so lethal to babies that it is used as a cheap instrument of abortion.
- Defied:"Alice, you're pregnant! You shouldn't be drinking!"
"Remember that Phlebotinum that lets me continue drinking even while pregnant without harm to the fetus?"
"Oh, yeah." - Discussed: Alice is considering having a child. A friend of hers points out that that would mean abstaining from alcohol for nine months, and Alice replies, "Yeah, probably."
- Conversed: Alice and Bob are watching TV together, and Bob points out that the pregnant character isn't drinking.
- Implied: Alice repeatedly makes excuses to not drink alcohol, having to drive, being tired and not wanting to spend the night at the bar, claiming to be allergic to alcohol or the certain drink being served, and even flat out lying and claiming to be underage. All the while Alice often has her hand on her stomach in a suspicious way.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice gets sick of her husband Bob monitoring what she drinks to make sure it's not alcoholic and feels that he doesn't trust her to take care of their baby.
- Alice starts getting lonely during her pregnancy because her friends stop inviting her to parties where there will be alcohol, even though she doesn't plan to drink.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob is simply being overprotective because he's nervous about becoming a father. He eases up on watching what Alice drinks when she tells him how she feels.
- Alice hosts an alcohol-free party so she can spend time with her friends without anyone worrying that she might drink.
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