It's pretty incredible that human bodies have the ability to create new life — and it's even more shocking that so many pregnant people continue to work and live while pregnant like it's NBD. After all, a growing baby basically steals energy and nutrients [1] from their parent, and it can come with some wild (and miserable) side effects.
That being said, every pregnant person — whether they're able to continue working up until their due date or hunkered down resting — is worthy of immense praise and admiration. Growing another human being is just about as spectacular as it gets. But when someone goes ahead and does something incredible while pregnant, it's hard not to regard it with awe.
Take, for example, Rihanna's Super Bowl LVII performance [2], in which she performed a nonstop mashup of her greatest hits while revealing to millions of people that she's months pregnant with her second child [3] (and less than a year after giving birth to her first [4]). It's the stuff of legends, and we can't help but be obsessed.
And while "Mother" Rihanna [5] is top of mind right now, she's not the only one who's wowed us with her ability to slay things while expecting. Read on for more inspiring moments from parents-to-be. While these are certainly not the norm or the expectation for pregnant parents, they deserve celebrating all the same.
Rihanna's Super Bowl LVII Halftime Performance
Until next year's event rolls around, we'll be rewatching Rihanna [7]'s Super Bowl LVII halftime performance over and over and over again — looking for hints that she was announcing her pregnancy [8], yes, but also just in complete awe. Not only did she power through the vocals of "Only Girl (In the World)" and "We Found Love," among many other songs (despite the fact that pregnancy vastly decreases your lung volume [9], making singing even harder), but she also did so from atop a moving platform suspended at dizzyingly high heights. The 2023 Super Bowl MVP, in our minds, is obvious.
Beyoncé's 2011 Pregnancy Announcement and 2017 Grammy Performance
Back in 2011, Beyoncé announced her pregnancy in the most iconic way: at the very end of a performance of "Love on Top" at the MTV VMAs [10]. At the time, she was a few months along, and the internet promptly freaked out about the first baby Bey (who we now know as Blue Ivy) joining the world.
This was just one of Beyoncé's now-legendary performances while pregnant. In 2017, when she was several months pregnant with twins Rumi and Sir, Beyoncé performed "Love Drought" and "Sandcastles" [11] from her "Lemonade" album while showing everyone the definition of a pregnancy glow.
Serena Williams Winning the 2017 Australian Open
Tennis GOAT Serena Williams surprised fans and the tennis world when she announced her pregnancy in April 2017 — namely because a few weeks before, she had won the Australian Open, securing her record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam singles title. Now in the process of retiring [12], Williams is stepping away from professional tennis to spend time with her first child, Olympia, and grow her family without having to compete while pregnant.
Jacinda Ardern Ruling a Country as the Prime Minister of New Zealand
In October 2017, at age 37, New Zealand politician Jacinda Ardern became the country's youngest prime minister in more than 150 years. At the time, she was questioned about her plans to have children, and she took a stand about the double standard that faced women of child-bearing age in jobs and positions of power. Coincidentally, she then governed for her first eight months while pregnant: in June 2018, Ardern gave birth to her first child, making her the first leader of a country in nearly 30 years to give birth while in office, according to Britannica [13].
Kerri Walsh Jennings Winning an Olympic Gold Medal in London
When US volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings hit the sand at the London Olympics in 2012, she didn't know it, but she was five weeks pregnant with her third child. Despite being "unreasonably moody" and missing her period, Walsh Jennings went on to secure her third Olympic gold in beach volleyball with teammate Misty May-Treanor, according to Today [14].
Gal Gadot Filming Intense Scenes For "Wonder Woman" and "Justice League"
You'd never watch the action-packed blockbuster hits "Wonder Woman" or "Justice League" and think that Gal Gadot was pregnant [15] — but indeed, she was. In fact, even her castmates didn't know. Gadot (and producers) went to great lengths to hide her second pregnancy from the other actors as well as for the movies overall, despite her battling nausea and migraines [16].
"I didn't want attention," she told Rolling Stone in 2017, as reported by Today [17]. "The default should be that women get the job done, but there's a long way to go and a lot of reprogramming that needs to be done to both genders."
Keke Palmer Hosting "Saturday Night Live" For the First Time
As if hosting "Saturday Night Live [18]" isn't enough pressure on its own, Keke Palmer did her first stint on the job in December 2022 while several months pregnant. She used the opening monologue to share the news. "There's some rumours going around, people have been in my comments saying, 'Keke's having a baby, Keke's pregnant,' and I wanna set the record straight — I am!" the star said before opening her jacket to reveal her bump to the audience.