Over the years, there have been groundbreaking moments in American film and television that have focused on the subject and depictions of pregnancy. While many classic television fans may immediately think of Lucille Ball’s real-life pregnancy ultimately woven into the I Love Lucy show, there have been additional depictions that have been noteworthy in their own right.

Victoria Sturtevant’s It’s All in the Delivery: Pregnancy in American Film and Television Comedy is the first book-length study centered on pregnancy in film and television as well as its accompanying tropes. Sturtevant also covers the evolution of these tropes over time, examining depictions during the years of the Hayes Code on to the sexual revolution, up to the present.

Through an examination of how comedy has honed in on these cliches to point out some of the realities and complexities of pregnancy, Sturtevant illuminates how comedy can bring to light the distortions and misrepresentations of pregnancy.

It’s All in the Delivery is available for purchase via the University of Texas Press.