50 free Pregnancy trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A full-term human pregnancy lasts roughly how long from the last period?
About 40 weeks
That is just over nine months; counting from fertilisation it is about 38 weeks.
Q 02Pregnancy is divided into how many trimesters?
Three
Each is roughly three months long.
Q 03At what point does a developing baby stop being called an 'embryo' and start being a 'fetus'?
At about ten weeks' gestational age
'Embryo' covers the first seven weeks after implantation.
Q 04Despite its name, when can 'morning sickness' actually strike?
At any time of day
It typically occurs between the 4th and 16th weeks.
Q 05Roughly what share of pregnant women experience morning sickness to some degree?
70 to 80%
About 60% actually vomit.
Q 06Which hormone do pregnancy tests detect in blood and urine?
hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)
It also may be behind morning sickness.
Q 07What are the harmless 'practice' tightenings before real labour called?
Braxton Hicks
They can start as early as the sixth week but usually the second or third trimester.
Q 08The English physician who first described those practice tightenings did so in what year?
1872
He was an English physician studying the later stages of pregnancy.
Q 09What is the term for the first time a mother feels her baby move?
Quickening
The first flutters are sometimes mistaken for gas or hunger pangs.
Q 10What did Aristotelian tradition believe the first felt movement marked?
The soul entering the fetus
This was called 'ensoulment'.
Q 11What is 'sympathetic pregnancy', in which a partner shares the symptoms, formally called?
Couvade syndrome
Symptoms can include weight gain and morning nausea in the non-pregnant partner.
Q 12Which symptoms most often affect a partner going through a sympathetic pregnancy?
Weight gain, altered hormones and nausea
The cause is debated between psychosomatic and hormonal explanations.
Q 13Twins from a single fertilised egg that splits are described as what?
Identical (monozygotic)
Q 21A baby born before which point is considered 'preterm'?
37 weeks
Between 39 and 41 weeks is 'full term'.
Q 22A pregnancy that reaches or passes 42 weeks is called what?
Post-term
41 to 42 weeks is 'late-term'.
Q 23What is the Latin-derived medical term for a pregnant woman?
A gravida
'Gravidus' comes from the Latin for 'heavy'.
Q 24A woman pregnant for the very first time is medically called a what?
Fraternal twins come from two separate eggs and share about 50% of their genes.
Q 14How much genetic material do fraternal twins share, like any siblings?
About 50%
Identical twins share nearly all their DNA.
Q 15What do you call three babies born at once?
Triplets
Eight at once are octuplets.
Q 16The first surviving set of octuplets on record, born in 2009 in California, carry which surname?
Suleman
The McCaughey septuplets of 1997 were the first surviving seven.
Q 17The extremely rare event of conceiving a second baby while already pregnant is called what?
Superfetation
Only about 10 human cases have been confirmed.
Q 18Which animal has the longest gestation of any mammal, at about 22 months?
The African elephant
A human pregnancy, by contrast, is about nine months.
Q 19On average, how long after fertilisation does an embryo implant in the uterus?
8 to 9 days
Implantation bleeding can be an early sign of pregnancy.
Q 20At 28 weeks, roughly what share of babies can survive outside the womb with good medical care?
More than 90%
They often still face serious health complications.
Primigravida
A woman who has never been pregnant is a nulligravida.
Q 25The dark line that can appear down the middle of a pregnant belly is called what?
The linea nigra
It results from hormonal pigmentation changes.
Q 26The bluish discolouration of the cervix and vulva in early pregnancy is named after whom?
Chadwick
Goodell's sign is a softening of the cervix.
Q 27Which two of the baby's tiny middle-ear bones come from the first pharyngeal arch?
The malleus and incus
The stapes, the smallest bone in the body, comes from the second arch.
Q 28After about which point is a fetus's hearing system fully formed, so it can hear low sounds?
26 weeks
Language acquisition may begin before birth.
Q 29What is the first, antibody-rich 'milk' a mother produces just after birth called?
Colostrum
It is also known as foremilk, or 'beestings' in old English dialects.
Q 30What proportion of women report experiencing food cravings in general?
About 97%
Only about 68% of men report them; chocolate is the most craved food.