Pregnancy Trivia
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97 free Pregnancy trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
41 free Pregnancy trivia questions with answers. Pregnancy is nine months of strange and wonderful biology, and this quiz turns it into a game perfect for a baby shower. Expect questions on the three trimesters, why 'morning sickness' can strike at midnight, the hormone every pregnancy test hunts for, Braxton Hicks 'practice' contractions, quickening, cravings (97% of women get them, and chocolate wins), twins versus octuplets, couvade syndrome in dads-to-be, the ultra-rare superfetation, and the elephant that stays pregnant for 22 months. Read them aloud at a shower and let guests guess, or play solo. The tone is light but every answer is medically accurate, checked against reference sources, so nothing here is an old wives' tale. Each question carries the sentence that backs it up, drawn from Wikipedia's articles on pregnancy, morning sickness, multiple births and related topics.
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Doctors count pregnancy weeks from which event?
The first day of the last period
The first day of the last period is the start point, so a woman is already counted as about two weeks pregnant by the time she conceives.
Q 02Why are pregnant women told to avoid soft cheeses like brie and camembert?
They may carry listeria bacteria
They may carry listeria bacteria; a pregnant woman may have only a mild, flu-like illness, yet the infection can cause miscarriage or stillbirth.
Q 03The switch from embryo to fetus at about ten weeks marks what milestone?
Its major organs have begun forming
Its major organs have begun forming by then, though none is fully developed, so the fetal stage is mostly those organs growing and maturing.
Q 04Which nutrient is advised before and during early pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects?
Folic acid
Folic acid is advised before conception because neural tube defects arise in the first month of pregnancy, often before a woman knows she is pregnant.
Q 05Which sedative, sold in the late 1950s for morning sickness, caused thousands of birth defects?
Thalidomide
Thalidomide was withdrawn after the birth-defect link emerged in 1961, yet decades later it was approved to treat the blood cancer multiple myeloma.
Q 06Which hormone do pregnancy tests detect in blood and urine?
hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)
hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) keeps the ovary's corpus luteum making progesterone, which sustains the uterine lining in early pregnancy.
Q 07What are the harmless 'practice' tightenings before real labour called?
Braxton Hicks
Braxton Hicks contractions can be set off by dehydration or a full bladder, and unlike true labour a bout eases off rather than building stronger and closer together.
Q 08Louise Brown, born in England in 1978, was the first baby conceived through which technique?
IVF
IVF earned her the nickname 'test tube baby', though she was actually conceived in a Petri dish after her parents had tried for nine years.
Q 09What is the term for the first time a mother feels her baby move?
Quickening
Quickening comes from an old sense of 'quicken', to come to life, since these movements are the first signs of life the mother can feel.
Q 10What is 'sympathetic pregnancy', in which a partner shares the symptoms, formally called?
Couvade syndrome
Couvade syndrome is named after 'couvade', rituals in which a father takes to bed during the birth; studies show expectant fathers' hormone levels shift too.
Q 11Twins from a single fertilised egg that splits are described as what?
Identical
Identical (monozygotic) twins come from one fertilised egg that splits into two embryos, so they share virtually all their DNA.
Q 12When one twin dies early in pregnancy and is reabsorbed, what is it commonly called?
A vanishing twin
A vanishing twin is reabsorbed by the mother or the surviving twin, often with no symptoms, so such losses went unnoticed until early ultrasound scans.
Q 13Which surname belongs to 'Octomom', whose 2009 octuplets were the first set to all survive infancy?
Suleman
Suleman's doctors were expecting seven babies, so the eighth took the delivery team by surprise.
Q 21Which pregnancy complication combines high blood pressure with protein in the urine?
Pre-eclampsia
Pre-eclampsia's early signs usually go unnoticed, so routine antenatal checks measure blood pressure and test urine; left untreated, it can cause seizures.
Q 22Which 0-to-10 score rates a newborn's condition at one and five minutes after birth?
Apgar score
The Apgar score is named after anaesthetist Virginia Apgar; the five-word mnemonic spelling out her surname was coined about ten years later as a learning aid.
Q 23What is a 'show' in late pregnancy?
The mucus plug in the cervix coming away
Q 14The extremely rare event of conceiving a second baby while already pregnant is called what?
Superfetation
Superfetation leaves two babies at different stages of development in the womb at the same time; in humans it is so rare that only a handful of cases have been reported.
Q 15Which animal has the longest gestation of any mammal, at about 22 months?
The African elephant
The African elephant carries a calf for about 22 months, nearly two and a half human pregnancies, so a cow gives birth only once every few years.
Q 16What is the light spotting some women notice when an embryo attaches to the womb lining called?
Implantation bleeding
Implantation bleeding tends to come around when a period is due, so it is easily mistaken for a light period before a pregnancy test.
Q 17When a very early birth is expected, why is the mother often given steroid injections?
To mature the baby's lungs
To mature the baby's lungs: the steroids cross the placenta and cut the risk of breathing difficulties and death in babies born too early.
Q 18What is 'kangaroo care' for premature babies?
Skin-to-skin holding
Skin-to-skin holding on a parent's chest began in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1978, when crowded neonatal units lacked enough incubators for small babies.
Q 19A pregnancy that reaches or passes 42 weeks is called what?
Post-term
Post-term means 42 weeks or more; because the risk of stillbirth climbs, the NHS offers to induce labour once a pregnancy reaches 41 weeks.
Q 20What is the Latin-derived medical term for a pregnant woman?
A gravida
A gravida is a pregnant woman; the word comes from Latin 'gravidus', meaning heavy or laden, the same root as 'gravity'.
The mucus plug in the cervix coming away is called a show; it means the cervix is starting to open, though labour may follow quickly or take a few days.
Q 24What is 'meconium'?
A newborn's first poo
A newborn's first poo is sticky and tar-like, made from what the baby swallowed in the womb; a stressed baby may pass it before birth and breathe it in.
Q 25A popular myth says a fetal heartbeat reveals what?
Whether it's a boy or girl
Whether it's a boy or girl can't be told this way: a study of 477 early scans found no significant heart-rate difference, and a 2023 review agreed.
Q 26What is the first, antibody-rich 'milk' a mother produces just after birth called?
Colostrum
Colostrum is so concentrated that a newborn needs only about a teaspoonful per feed, and its mild laxative effect helps the baby pass its first stools.
Q 27What is the pregnancy-linked craving for non-food substances such as chalk or soil called?
Pica
Pica takes its name from the Latin for magpie, a bird said to eat almost anything; because it can signal low nutrients, doctors may test a sufferer's iron levels.
Q 28Which term describes a fetus lying bottom-first rather than head-first near the end of pregnancy?
Breech
Breech babies sit bottom-down in the womb; about 3 to 4% of babies are breech at term, and many are delivered by caesarean section.
Q 29In an ectopic pregnancy, where does the embryo most often implant?
A fallopian tube
A fallopian tube is where more than 90% of ectopic pregnancies implant; a tube can't hold a growing embryo, so the pregnancy can't be saved and usually has to be removed.
Q 30What is a pregnancy that the mother doesn't know about until late on, or even until labour, called?
A cryptic pregnancy
A cryptic pregnancy can hide when periods are irregular or symptoms are mistaken for something else; about 1 in 2,500 pregnancies goes unnoticed right up to delivery.