Death by Childbirth/Film

• Wait for it... Star Wars, since "she's lost the will to live" and, you know, raise her children because the father is an asshole. A lot of fans believe that actually Palpatine killed Padme, by using Sith Alchemy to preserve Vader's life by draining Padme's life. This would have the side benefit of removing the only possible threat left to Palpatine's domination of his new apprentice. Another theory is that Padme's Force/midiclorians had been linked to Anakin's in such a strong bond that once he violently severed it, during the Force-choke he drained the life out of her. Explaining why Jedi were forbidden to get married in the first place. Their mate would die as well if their link was broken or the Jedi in question died.
• In the movie Jersey Girl. Kevin Smith had the mother die before ever casting the film. (That was sorta the point of it, how he'd react if his wife died he had to raise his daughter alone.) This is also inverted, as it was not the actual childbirth that killed her, but a brain aneurysm that ruptured during the process. Any kind of excessive physical strain or exertion would have done the trick, or enough time for it to get bigger and hemorrhage on its own.
• The protagonist's mother in Deconstructing Harry.
• Jack and Sarah has two Sarahs in it, the mother who dies in childbirth, and the daughter named after her. It's mainly a romantic comedy about the father recovering and hooking up with the American nanny though.
• Used at the start of The Red Violin, and partially justified and foreshadowed: Anna worries that her age will create complications during the birth.
• Alien featured really bloody alien births. Quite different than the other examples, but still fits the trope.
  • In Alien Vs Predator: Requiem, the Predator-Alien hybrid enters a maternity ward and uses a pregnant woman as the host for its eggs.
• Australian film Peaches does this in a rather gruesome way. The main character's mother is actually decapitated in a car accident, meaning she was born from a headless body.
  • See also The Breathing Method by Stephen King.
• Primarily responsible for the title character's abandonment in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
• Blade's mother was dying when she was giving birth to him in the Blade Trilogy. Didn't help she was vampirized though.
• The fate of Kristina in The New Land, albeit from a miscarriage that actual birth.
• Somewhat subverted in Revolutionary Road, where April bleeds to death from a botched attempt at self-abortion.
• A variant in the comedy/thriller North Sea Hijack, in which Roger Moore's character (in explaining his dislike of women) says "Both my parents died tragically in childbirth".
• Ofelia's half-brother kills his mother Carmen during labor in Pan's Labyrinth—foreshadowed ahead of time as Carmen is an Ill Girl AND is clearly having a very difficult pregnancy.
• The beginning of The Fly II involving Veronica 'Ronnie' Quaife.
• Similar to the Alien example is Species II, in which the human-looking offspring of the male alien age so quickly in the womb that they burst their way out.
• In Whale Rider, Pai's mother dies in labor as well as her twin brother.
• In Lars and the Real Girl, Lars's mother dies while giving birth to him. This leads Lars to believe he was responsible for her death and he becomes a shy hermit who lives in a shed as a result.
• This trope takes out Mr. Chips' wife in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, along with their unborn child.
• Inverted in Angus: While the title character was being born, his father had a fatal heart attack.
• The same happened in Like Water for Chocolate, with Tita's father dying of a heart attack as she's being born after learning that Tita's middle sister Getrudis is NOT his daughter, but that of Mama Elena and her old lover.
• Played with in Snow White a Tale of Terror. Lilli's mother Lilliana was already dying from a wound in her chest when Lilli was born, so she instructed her husband Frederich to cut the baby out of her because it was the only way to make sure Lilli didn't die with her.
• In Felicity: An American Girl Adventure, Felicity's mother Martha becomes severely ill and weakened after giving birth to her latest child, and Felicity is terrified that she'll succumb to this. Thankfully, she recovers in time for Christmas Eve.
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves almost pulls this on Little John's wife Fanny, but Robin's companion Azeem has enough medical knowledge to save her and her baby.