You deserve as many breaks and as much TLC as you can get. Don’t feel guilty about taking time for yourself. After all, you are gestating and carrying an entire human inside of you. That’s important work. If all you want to do at the end of the day is sit on the couch with your feet up, or curled around your pregnancy pillow, we get it! And what better way to catch some R&R than to stream some good quality TV? (Escapist TV is just fine, too.) These days, there are so many shows to choose from that it can be overwhelming. While some pregnant people want to watch shows that have nothing to do with being pregnant or having babies (a totally valid choice), many expectant parents are looking for shows that feel relatable and could help prepare them for the months ahead. But where to find these shows? Well, we’ve done the work for you, and are sharing 12 of our most favorite streaming TV shows about pregnancy, birth, babies, and motherhood. There is something here for whatever mood you are in—be it comedy, dramas, documentaries, and even a (pseudo) crime show. So pull up a chair (to rest your feet on), grab your favorite snacks, and get ready to indulge. You’ve earned it.
Workin’ Moms
Show Stats
The show stars Catherine Reitman, Jessalyn Wanlim, Dani Kind, and Juno Rinaldi.It premiered in 2017 and is currently in its fifth season.Episodes are 23 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This Canadian comedy series follows a group of four moms who are juggling work with family and trying to stay sane. Kate, Jenny, Anne, and Frankie use their “mommy and me” class to check in with each other. They share their super relatable mom struggles, such as pumping at work, reigniting intimacy with a partner, and postpartum depression. Even when the topics get dark and deep, this show keeps you laughing. The show’s emotional core is the bond of friendship between these four women.
Where to Stream It
All five seasons are available on Netflix.
Black-ish
Show Stats
The show stars Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, and Marsai Martin.It premiered in 2014 and is currently in its seventh season.Episodes are 22 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This ABC series takes a smart, funny, unflinching look at what it means to be a Black family in America today, and how that might look different in a majority white community. Dre and Rainbow Johnson (who are Black and biracial, respectively) are caught off guard, for instance, when their 13-year-old son wants to know if he can have a bar mitzvah like some of his friends at school. The large ensemble cast features Laurence Fishburne in a recurring role as the patriarch of the family. This show’s savvy, fresh takes will have you laughing even as it probes the complex issue of race in America.
Where to Stream It
All seven seasons are available on Hulu.
Good Girls
Show Stats
The show stars Christina Hendricks, Retta, Mae Whitman, Reno Wilson, Manny Montana, and Matthew Lillard.It premiered in 2018 and is currently in its fourth season.Episodes are 44 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
Did you ever think you’d get so stressed over paying the bills and raising a family that you’d just snap? This darkly comic NBC series highlights what happens when three typical suburban moms turn to a life of crime. Over the course of its four seasons, we see Beth, Annie, and Ruby get drawn deeper into a world of robbery, counterfeiting, and gang violence—all the while maintaining their sweet “good girl” image. This genre-bending series is part comedy, part soap, part crime show. You may find it to be both funny and thrilling.
Where to Stream It
The first three seasons are on Netflix, and you can catch the latest episodes on Hulu.
Call the Midwife
Show Stats
The show stars Jessica Raine, Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris, Judy Parfitt, Helen George, Laura Main, Stephen McGann, and Vanessa Redgrave as the narrator.It premiered in 2012 and is currently in its tenth season.Episodes are 52 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This BBC period drama is as addictive as it is critically acclaimed. The plot is centered around a group of nurses and midwives in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The show deals with serious issues, including poverty, healthcare, incest, abuse, and prostitution. But it is not all darkness and grit. It is also a magnificently crafted drama that will transport you to another time and place. It’s a celebration of these heroic women’s efforts to deliver babies in even the direst circumstances.
Where to Stream It
The first nine seasons are available on Netflix.
Catastrophe
Show Stats
The show stars Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney, Ashley Jensen, and Mark Bonnar.It premiered in 2015 and ran for four seasons.Episodes are 24 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This wickedly funny show features the misadventures of Sharon and Rob, whose one-night stand becomes much more than they bargained for when Sharon becomes pregnant. It’s a British show, but Rob is American and Sharon is Irish, so accents and cultures clash as the two are launched headfirst into the world of parenting. The show is laugh-till-you-cry funny even as it takes a stark look at the joys and disasters of parenting and relationships. Look out for Carrie Fisher in a recurring role as Rob’s mom!
Where to Stream It
Offspring
Show Stats
The show stars Asher Keddie, Kat Stewart, Deborah Mailman, Eddie Perfect, Linda Cropper, Richard Davies, John Waters, and Jane Harber.It premiered in 2010 and ran for seven seasons.Episodes are 42 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
Nina Proudman is a brilliant OB-GYN who is cool as a cucumber in the delivery room; but in her personal life, she’s still trying to figure it out (and quiet her overactive imagination). This Australian hit series is part family sitcom, part workplace comedy. It revolves entirely around Nina, her family, and her colleagues at St. Francis hospital. Over its seven seasons, the show deals with virtually every aspect of reproduction: IVF, sperm donation, surrogacy, pregnancy loss, accidental pregnancy, babies switched at birth, unexpected family relations, and more. Be prepared for some wacky hijinks but also profound observations on the nature of life and parenthood.
Where to Stream It
All seven seasons are currently available on Netflix.
This Is Us
Show Stats
The show stars Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, and Justin Hartley.It premiered in 2016 and is currently in its fifth season.Episodes are 42 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
If you’re not already watching this hugely popular NBC series, it’s not too late to go back and binge all five seasons. This show chronicles the childhoods and present-day lives of three adult siblings: Kevin, Kate, and Randall Pearson. It also explores the past and present relationship of their parents, Jack and Rebecca. The innovative storytelling style jumps back and forth between decades, weaving a tapestry of the Pearsons’ lives. Randall is Black while his two siblings are white, allowing the show to explore issues of adoption, race, culture, and what it means to be a family. The heartfelt show skews toward drama but there is plenty of joy and laughter, too.
Where to Stream It
All five seasons are available on Hulu.
Pramface
Show Stats
The show stars Scarlett Alice Johnson and Sean Michael Verey.It premiered in 2012 and ran for three seasons.Episodes are 29 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This British series is about a pair of working-class teens, Jamie and Laura, who unexpectedly become parents after what was supposed to be a simple party hookup. Laura’s troubles are multiplied as she learns that Jamie is a bit younger than she originally thought. This series is both hilarious and bittersweet as we watch these two navigate raising a baby, and figuring out their relationship, while their schoolmates are still just living their teenage lives.
Where to Stream It
Jane the Virgin
Show Stats
The show stars Gina Rodriguez, Andrea Navedo, Yael Grobglas, Justin Baldoni, Ivonne Coll, Brett Dier, Jaime Camil, and Elias Janssen.It premiered in 2014 and ran for five seasons.Episodes are 40 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This brilliantly goofy comedy-drama is about a single young woman who, thanks to an accidental artificial insemination, becomes a real-life miracle—a pregnant virgin. The show is based on a Venezuelan soap opera, and you can tell: the show both parodies and celebrates the overdramatic style of the Latin telenovela. Jane (spoiler alert!) may or may not remain a virgin as she navigates pregnancy, birth, parenting, and relationships over the course of five seasons.
Where to Stream It
All five seasons are available on Netflix.
Parenthood
Show Stats
The show stars Peter Krause, Lauren Graham, Dax Shepard, Erika Christensen, Sam Jaeger, Mae Whitman, Monica Potter, Sarah Ramos, Max Burkholder, Bonnie Bedelia, and Craig T. Nelson.It premiered in 2010 and ran for six seasons.Episodes are 44 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This series shows the many generations of the Braverman family as they go through the challenges and triumphs of raising kids. At the center are four adult siblings—Adam, Sarah, Crosby, and Julia—each going through their own unique experience of being a parent. In its six seasons, the show sees them parent their kids through puberty, disability, and heartbreak. Meanwhile, the parents themselves cope with career changes, infidelity, and single parenthood. If you enjoyed Lauren Graham playing a single mom in “Gilmore Girls,” and Mae Whitman in “Good Girls,” you won’t want to miss them playing mother and daughter in this show.
Where to Stream It
All six seasons are available on Hulu.
Riverdale
Show Stats
The show stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Marisol Nichols, Madelaine Petsch, Mädchen Amick, Luke Perry, Mark Consuelos, and Skeet Ulrich.It premiered in 2017 and is currently in its fifth season.Episodes are 42 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This CW series is an outrageously dark reimagining of the characters from the classic “Archie” comics. Instead of getting into their usual goofy antics, Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica and the rest find themselves dealing with serial killers, gang wars, drug cults, and more. When Betty’s big sister Polly gets pregnant in the first season, she is sent away to a home for troubled youth called the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, while the Cooper and Blossom families feud over who will claim Polly’s baby. This series is part soap, part teen drama, part thriller, and 100% guilty pleasure. Consider it to be the TV equivalent of junk food.
Where to Stream It
The first four seasons are on Netflix, and you can catch the latest episodes on The CW.
The Letdown
Show Stats
The show stars Alison Bell, Duncan Fellows, Noni Hazlehurst, Sacha Horler, and Leah Vandenberg.It premiered in 2016 and ran for two seasons.Episodes are 28 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This Australian series offers a raw, darkly funny look at the sleeplessness, hormones, and emotional roller coaster of being a new mom. The main character, Audrey, is a young mother who needs some support and is having trouble finding it. Her partner is preoccupied with his own career, and her odd and eclectic mom friends have troubles of their own. Alison Bell, the writer and co-creator of the show, also stars as Audrey. The series is worth watching just for her hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking performance.
Where to Stream It
Both seasons are available on Netflix.
Babies
Show Stats
This two-part documentary premiered in 2020.It is divided into two six-episode parts.Episodes are 52 minutes long.
Why It’s a Winning Pick
This is undoubtedly the world’s most adorable documentary as it follows the development of—you guessed it—babies over the course of their first year of life. The show spotlights what they see, when they start to recognize faces, how they start learning to walk, and more. You’ll learn lots of information—all based on current, reliable scientific research—but more importantly, you’ll see it for your very eyes. Plus, you can coo over ridiculously cute babies on the screen. What could be better?
Where to Stream It
You can watch the whole thing on Netflix.
A Word from Verywell
People will tell you that once your baby arrives, you won’t have much time for anything, even leisure activities like TV. While there’s some truth to that—you will definitely have less opportunity for uninterrupted TV viewing time—you will likely still have time for small-screen binging. You may even be able to start a new show during the postpartum period. There will be many late nights when you’ll be up and feeding your baby, as well as moments when your baby will be napping (on you or beside you), and then you can take in your favorite shows. Thank goodness for smartphones and streaming apps. They are truly lifesavers for parents of newborns who need some entertainment to get them through the odd hours that their babies keep. That being said, life is going to look a little different once your little one arrives, so pregnancy is a really good time to squeeze in as much “me” time as possible. It’s also a great opportunity to reflect on your pregnancy, and familiarize yourself with what parenting might look like. While the portrayal of pregnancy and parenthood in these shows is sometimes exaggerated for dramatic effect, they still offer relatable (and often hilarious) takes on what to expect during these special months as you wait to meet your little one.
