Posted 29 minutes agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret Down25 Actors Who Had Their Real-Life Pregnancies Written Into Their ShowsLucille Ball's pregnancy revolutionized how TV shows treated the topic!by Kristen HarrisBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink This post mentions pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and postpartum depression. TV shows often handle an actor's pregnancy the old-fashioned way - by hiding it with big totes, laundry baskets, and other props. ABC / Via Peacock Sometimes, however, they decide to write the pregnancy into the show, whether by making the character pregnant, too, or by taking a...less conventional route. Here are 25 interesting ways actors' pregnancies were written into their shows: Warning: Spoilers ahead! 1. While filming the first season of Based on a True Story, Kaley Cuoco was expecting her daughter, Matilda. Initially, her character, Ava Bartlett, and her onscreen husband weren't going to have children, but the writers changed the script, making Ava pregnant. This change intensified the pressure that the couple's financial and relationship issues put them under, therefore raising the story's stakes. Peacock Kaley told USA Today, "I had to be on my feet a lot. It was a lot. And by the end, I was nine months pregnant. So the fight scene at the end near the grave - the fantasy - a lot of that was done by my double because it was like I was literally about to give birth, like any second." Peacock 2. Melissa Fumero was pregnant with her first son, Enzo, during Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 3. She told Entertainment Tonight, "So we got a surprise pregnancy that weirdly timed out brilliantly where my due date was two weeks after we're supposed to wrap Brooklyn Nine-Nine. So we felt like, OK, this is meant to be. This feels very serendipitous. We were, after we got over our initial shock, we were very, very excited." Fox / Via Netflix However, on the show, her character, Amy Santiago, had only recently started dating Jake Peralta, so the writers worked Melissa's pregnancy into the show in a different way. As part of a sting operation, Amy went undercover as a pregnant inmate at a prison. Fox / Via Netflix Then, in Season 7, Melissa was expecting her second son, Axel, in real life, so Amy and Jake, who were now married, welcomed a son of their own. NBC / Via youtube.com 3. Sarah Snook was pregnant with her daughter during Succession Season 4. Her character, Shiv Roy, was also pregnant, but that storyline wasn't originally part of the script when they filmed. Sarah didn't tell the crew she was expecting until after filming a particularly emotional scene, where, during a fight, her onscreen husband, Tom, told her that she wasn't "a good person to have children." Sarah told Variety, "I, as Sarah, was pregnant - but when we shot the scene, Shiv wasn't." HBO / Via HBO Max At the time of filming, only a few people knew Sarah was pregnant. She said, "Inevitably something dulls, and you get used to a scene, and you are not finding the sort of same spontaneity or inspiration in it. So when I hear that line, 'Maybe you're not going to be a good mom' - maybe that's me hearing it, just as much as it is Shiv. Because that's a pretty horrible thing to say to somebody!" HBO / Via HBO Max 4. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor Nana Visitor, who played Kira Nerys, and her costar/husband Alexander Siddig were expecting their son, Django, during Season 4. However, her character wasn't pregnant - but Keiko O'Brien was. Paramount Television / Via Paramount_ So, when an accident left Keiko with critical injuries, Dr. Julian Bashir (played by Alexander) transferred the fetus to the only available womb for safety, making Kira a surrogate mother. The baby's parents named him Kirayoshi after her. Paramount Television / Via Paramount+ 5. When Lisa Kudrow was expecting her son Julian during Friends Seasons 4 and 5, her character, Phoebe Buffay, became a surrogate for her brother and his wife. NBC / Via HBO Max Her castmates were super sweet and supportive off-camera. She told People, "The six of us would do a huddle backstage and just say, 'All right, have a good show, love you love you love you love you.' And when I was pregnant, then they would say, 'Have a great show, love you love you - love you, little Julian!' 'Cause we knew it was a boy, and that was his name." NBC / Via HBO Max 6. Charlotte Nicdao's pregnancy was written into Mythic Quest Season 4. Her character, Poppy Li, had an unplanned pregnancy with her boyfriend, Storm. Charlotte told Decider, "I actually had an inkling of the direction that Poppy's storyline was going this season because I was the one that made the call to the writers as the room started to let them know that I was pregnant, and I would probably be pregnant while we were filming." Apple TV+ / Via youtube.com Writer Megan Ganz told the outlet, "When Charlotte told us she was pregnant, we were like, 'This is amazing, because you're the last character anybody would think would get pregn