Lamaze Class

"And that's when I realized I didn't even need Lamaze classes!"

—Strong Bad, Homestar Runner

Every pregnant Sitcom character must attend a Lamaze natural childbirth class, usually with the male character least suited for the position as her coach/partner (as the natural father, or most responsible friend was supposed to do it but had a last minute problem that had to be dealt with first). What results is the usual total disaster as the flustered male screws up in every possible way. It usually leads into a Screaming Birth later in the season.

Examples of Lamaze Class include:

Comic Books

• The preview for Archie Marries Veronica: Part 3: It's Twins! specifically promise Archie getting into Lamaze class hijinks.
• When Tim Drake Robin's girlfriend gets pregnant by another boy, Tim Drake Robin the Boy Wonder Alvin Draper is the one who attends Lamaze class with her -- because going in mask and cape would be a wee bit conspicuous, and he's ready to play father to her baby, but not for her to know his real name. (And no, the "other boy" who is actually responsible for her condition is not Tim-by-yet-another-name.)

Fanfic

• In the Little Cherub series by Beautifulpurpleflame, Raven does this twice - because the first time, the child was a drunken accident and she ran away, so the second time, "Beast Boy insisted on having the whole pregnancy experience and guilted her into going again".

Film

• In Jack & Sarah, Jack (played by Richard E. Grant) goes to a Lamaze class with his pregnant wife Sarah, and pretends, hammily, that he has himself suddenly gone into labor in the middle of the class.

Literature

• In the third The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book, Carmen's stepfather is unable to make it to her mother's Lamaze class, so Carmen herself steps in. (And then it's Tibby who's with Christina when she gives birth.)

Live Action TV

• Family Ties has an example of this trope; Alex fills in as coach for a single woman named Donna during Lamaze class in the Keatons' living room. He later, in typical Alex fashion, goes way over the top and becomes obsessed with his impending "fatherhood".
• Growing Pains
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Had one of these. Phil is unable to take Vivian to her Lamaze class, and her own children welch out as well. This leads Will to attend, where he picks up one of the other mothers (who turns out to be his favorite sportswriter). The episode ends with her (the writer) giving birth in the back of a limo, on the way back from a sports game. Will assists.
• Friends. Once subverted when the pregnant Carol is the one unable to attend, so the classes are taken by her ex-husband Ross and her girlfriend Susan. Hilarity Ensues as the two argue over which of them should be the "woman".
• Roseanne has the title character playing birth coach to her friend Crystal. Also has an example of a Screaming Birth when Roseanne has a Flash Back to D.J.'s birth.
• Murphy Brown
• Reno 911! had one of these, though the humor mostly came from Paul Rudd as the uncomfortably hands-on instructor.
• In the Heat of the Night - not a sitcom, but played for warm fuzzy laughs anyway.
• The Aussie version of Kath and Kim had a variant: Brett (the father) has used Kim's beanbag for a sympathy pregnancy, forcing Kim to use Sharon as a beanbag at the class.
• Malcolm in the Middle had the three boys attend one of these classes, it was about the only time in the series all three of them actually learned something together.
• Surprisingly averted on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, considering there have been three pregnancies in three seasons. It gets a mention with the first pregnant girl, Amy. When she's in labor at the hospital, she says she was supposed to go to the class next week. It's never brought up with the other pregnant characters.
• In the fourth season of Desperate Housewives, Susan and Mike go to Lamaze class... only to find that her ex-husband is also attending the class with his new wife. Awkward.
• Happened on Mama's Family, with Mama being Naomi's coach. Impatient to get out of the class and go to her bingo game, Mama decides to get brutally honest with the expectant mothers about the horrors of childbirth, including describing her favorite "breathing technique": "Inhale...AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
• When her pregnant daughter won't go, the title character Reba goes with the baby's father, and he winds up being the 'mommy'. Naturally, Reba's ex-husband and his new wife are there as well.
• In Will and Grace, the two attend one for Grace's pregnancy.
• Possibly one of the best variants of this happened on The L Word, where transgendered Max and his boyfriend attended a supremely awkward lamaze-or-similar class involving a visibly pregnant and visibly male Max.
• Earl and Fran went to a Lamaze class in Dinosaurs. Earl wondered why they had to so since their baby is going to come from an egg.
• Mentioned (but unfortunately never seen) in The X-Files, in which Mulder goes to Lamaze class with Scully. He jokingly demonstrates as she's getting ready to go, and Scully asks him how he knows all of this. He responds with "Hey, I'm unemployed. I've got a lot of time on my hands. Oprah. I watch a lot of Oprah." Too bad we never got to actually see the class; Mulder going to Lamaze would have surely been amusing.
• Also mentioned but never seen on CSI: NY. Danny mentions taking it with Lindsay.
• In Boy Meets World, Eric fills in for his father at one of these classes during his mother's fourth pregnancy, and then when his dad arrives he becomes the partner of another woman in the class whose husband is off in the navy. Hilarity Ensues, naturally, because Eric is The Ditz.

Newspaper Comics

• Doonesbury, for Rick and Joanie. Unexpectedly (and to Rick's shock) Joanie actually has the baby in the class.

Stand Up Comedy

• Bill Cosby's classic stand up routine, "Natural Childbirth".
• Sinbad's Guide To Life had Sinbad and his wife attending Lamaze class and being the best in the class. But as Sinbad said, "that whole breathing thing didn't last when the real deal came, though."
• Robert Klein featured this on "Child Of The '50s, Man Of The '80s."
• Dara O'Briain described attending a new-age Lamaze seminar with his then-pregnant wife in his show "This is the Show". Neither he nor his wife, a surgeon, were particularly impressed with the coach's holistic "don't let the doctors near you!" approach. Behold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khfJ-HB 12 Z 0
• Robin Williams parodied the entire idea in one of his earliest comedy routines with the claim that he and his wife were using "LeMans" instead of Lamaze, where the birth is styled after Grand Prix racing, complete with Jackie Stewart providing commentary.

Western Animation

• Featured in the Home Movies episode "Coffins and Cradel's". Brendon is his stepmom's Lamaze coach. Ironically leading into a screaming birth in the same episode.
• Featured in an episode of Rocko's Modern Life. Rocko, Heffer, and Filbert are tending to Filbert's egg for his wife, and they are at a baby-things store. The store offers Lamaze classes, and all the other expectant couples are chickens. It turns out the class was a scam by a bunch of Easter Bunnies to steal the eggs.