Bowen knew she couldn’t miss out on being part of “Modern Family” – she said it had been years since she had read a better script. However, while filming the pilot, she was only a few weeks away from giving birth.
Starting on a brand new show is a great deal of stress, and doing so in the final moments of pregnancy created even more stress. The show took all the normal tactics: filming her upper body only, giving her baggy clothing, and having her hold large things in front of herself. Of course, when the show went into real production, the pregnancy was a thing of the past.
Ellen Pompeo — Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy has been going for a hundred years, so it comes as no surprise that Ellen Pompeo got pregnant at some point. It happened back in the sixth season, but the show simply hid the pregnancy by filming close-ups of the actress.
Since the show is set mainly in a hospital, and scrubs and white doctor coats are regularly pretty baggy, it didn't require much change in Pompeo's filming attire. When Pompeo had to go on maternity leave, they had her character donate a liver to her estranged father, which put the character into recovery during Pompeo's maternity leave.
Zooey Deschanel — New Girl
"New Girl" took a unique path to keep Zooey Deschanel's pregnancy hidden from the audience. She was the lead character of the show – the title character, even – and so they couldn't remove her for long. They did, however, give her an in-show injury, which confined her to her bed while she was pregnant.
Once the recovering time for the injury passed, they gave the new girl jury duty, which saw her sitting behind a short wall. Deschanel filmed all of her scenes before going on leave, and when she finally did depart to give birth, special guest Megan Fox joined the cast for a few episodes.
Alyssa Milano — Mistresses
The producers for the show "Mistress" had to use every trick in the book to hide Alyssa Milano's pregnancy during the second season of the show. They hid her with set pieces, had her hold props, dressed her in black, baggy clothing – all the classics.
Milano has said that the show went to such great effort to hide her pregnancy that it felt like a sketch from "Saturday Night Live". After that season, the show relocated production from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and Milano left the show, stating her desire to be around her family.
Ginnifer Goodwin — Once Upon a Time
Goodwin played a pair of characters on "Once Upon a Time" (Mary Margaret in the real world, and Snow White in the magical realm). This way, she only had to hide her baby bump in half of her scenes.
Producers decided that Mary Margaret would not be pregnant while Snow White would. Goodwin could let her baby bulge be center stage as Snow White. On the other hand, she still had to keep to the regular strategies for keeping a pregnancy hidden while she was acting as her character in the real world, such as big, bulky, heavy coats.