The Baby Trap/Playing With

Basic Trope: A woman gets pregnant on purpose, in an attempt to keep her boyfriend or husband with her.

• Played Straight: Alice tells Bob that she's on the Pill (she isn't), and that they don't need to use a condom. She gets pregnant and tells him.
• Exaggerated: Alice has done this to two other guys before Bob.
• Justified: Alice believes that Babies Make Everything Better, which is why she does this. She wants to find a way to keep Bob with her.
  • Alice and Bob aren't exactly in a healthy relationship or marriage.
• Inverted: Bob pokes a tiny hole in Alice's diaphragm (or in his condom) so she'll get pregnant and have to stay with him.
  • Alternatively, Alice tells Bob she's not using any sort of birth control even though she secretly is, because Bob wants a baby and Alice doesn't.
  • Bob tells Alice he's pregnant to make her stay with him.
• Subverted: Alice tells Bob she's pregnant, but she's lying.
  • • Or, Alice is pregnant, but the child is most likely not Bob's; she tells him it is.
  • Alternatively, Alice tries sabotaging her birth control, but it doesn't work.
  • Or, Alice gets pregnant, tells Bob (who agrees to marry her), and either miscarries or has an abortion not long after the wedding.
• Double Subverted: But then an official test from a doctor confirms that she really is pregnant.
  • A DNA test confirms that the child actually is Bob's.
  • But Bob stays with her even after the wedding.
• Deconstructed: This is not guaranteed to work, nor will it solve their relationship problems. (It might just create some interesting new ones, however.) It is also considered a form of Domestic Abuse.
• Reconstructed: Bob loves Alice unconditionally, even if she is a manipulative bitch, and marries her anyway. They work out their relationship problems, and both mature as people. And live Happily Ever After.
  • Alternatively, Bob gets out of this relationship and moves on, and finds a new girlfriend who treats him with love and respect. He may pay child support if the child is indeed his, but otherwise never has anything to do with Alice again.
• Parodied: Alice has been taking baby aspirin instead of birth-control pills. Not because anyone's been tampering with them, but because she's Too Dumb to Live.
  • "Proposing" marriage this way is considered the norm.
• Lampshaded: "I thought you said you were on the Pill!"
• Averted: Alice does not get pregnant, and does not lie about or sabotage her birth control.
• Enforced: Rule of Drama. May result in a Very Special Episode
• Invoked: Alice stops taking her birth control pills, and has unprotected sex with Bob.
• Defied: Alice believes this is unethical, and resolves to try and find other ways of fixing her relationship with Bob. Like talking about their problems in a civilized and non-accusatory manner.
• Discussed: "I can't believe she did that!"
• Conversed: "Yeah. A baby won't solve your problems."
• Played For Laughs: Bob's male partner tells him that he's pregnant. Bob believes said partner.
• Played For Drama: Bob is now going to be trapped in a relationship he doesn't want, or forced to pay child support for the next 18 years. What will he do?

---

Please don't leave me to go back to The Baby Trap; I'm pregnant with your child!