The Essential Movies To Watch When You’re Expecting

In her recently published memoir And Now I Have Everything, Meaghan O'Connell offers a "radical" alternative to the hushed, reverential language typically used to speak about motherhood. "What if, instead of worrying about scaring women, we told them the truth?" O'Connell asks. "What if we treated women like thinking adults?"

Well, Diablo Cody's movie Tully, aims to tell an uncomfortable truth about motherhood and pregnancy — Cody is, to use O'Connell's words, treating the audience like "thinking adults." In the movie, Charlize Theron's character, Marlo, is subsumed under the pressure and chaos of two children, and is pregnant with a third. Her new nanny, Tully (Mackenzie Davis), helps Marlo manage — but her presence creates new issues for Marlo, too.

Not all movies about pregnancy and motherhood are as raw as Tully. In fact, many of them replace uncomfortable truths with sappy and sentimental storylines — and that's all right. Pregnancy's a mixed bag, and so are the movies about it. Ranging from funny to cringe-worthy to sentimental, these movies will be cathartic experiences for expectant mothers.