Peppa Pig’s mum is pregnant – how do we talk to little kids about this?

It's huge news today – Mummy Pig is pregnant and a new ‘Peppa Pig’ episode airing next month will show her making a baby announcement to Peppa and George. It’s never an easy conversation to have, says Charlotte Cripps, a mum of two who was terrified of her eldest feeling left out.

It’s just been announced: Mummy Pig is pregnant. That’s right – Peppa Pig’s mum is having a baby, and the long-running animated series will be forever changed. In an episode that will premiere – appropriately – on Mother’s Day on 30 March, Mummy and Daddy Pig will break the news to their children that a new baby is on the way, with the show’s forthcoming 11th season exploring, over time, the pregnancy and birth.

The arrival of a new baby, or in this case, an anthropomorphic piglet, is never an easy conversation to have – as I can vouch for. When I first told my daughter Lola, then 18 months old, that I was having another baby in 2018, I was terrified she’d feel left out. Nothing could have prepared me, her or Muggles, my giant golden retriever, for the reality of a new baby. It was as if we were all in suspended disbelief. I’d even tried to back out of the elected C-section saying I wasn’t ready.

I’m intrigued, therefore, to see how Peppa Pig deals with the subject. The show has been accused of gender stereotyping and sexism – once even fat-shaming. It introduced its first same-sex couple in 2022 after years of campaigning for the programme to showcase a more diverse selection of families. Peppa’s best friend Suzy Sheep is the only character without a father, making Mummy Sheep the sole carer like me. But now 21 years after we first met Peppa, her family is growing – and with Peppa herself still stuck at the age of four, it’s well, er, wild!.

In the new episode, titled “The Big Announcement”, siblings Peppa and George are wearing saucepans and colanders on their heads when Daddy and Mummy Pig walk into the sitting room. “Your attention, please!” Daddy Pig says, in his authoritarian voice, while Mummy Pig tells them they have something very exciting to declare. “I’m having a baby!” Daddy Pig blurts out, blustery as usual. Mummy Pig corrects him, pointing out that “it’s we”. George lets out a little cry in shock.

In no time, Peppa and George are excitedly looking around the room for the baby – as if it’s plonked behind a sofa. They’re then told it’s in Mummy Pig’s tummy. The conversation takes a potentially awkward turn. “How did it get in there?” asks Peppa, innocently. Mummy Pig nudges Daddy Pig for help and grits her teeth manically.

“Who wants cake?” Daddy Pig asks, changing the subject rapidly. It’s all very lighthearted. Peppa and George then learn from Mummy Pig that the baby has to grow from the size of a grape to a watermelon. “It’s an important topic to explore,” says Esra Cafer, senior vice President of franchise strategy and management at Hasbro, the company that owns the Peppa Pig franchise. “Pre-schoolers welcoming a new sibling will strongly relate to these new stories and can learn how to handle the new moments … and even only children will delight in watching the ups and downs of having a new baby in the Peppa house.” She adds: “It allows parents and children to learn with Peppa as she navigates new territory.”.

Peppa Pig celebrated its 20th birthday in 2024, and Cafer says it was the perfect moment for the show’s creators Neville Astley and Mark Baker to bring “a whole new dynamic” to the family. Is it hard for Peppa to have a sibling? “Like any four-year-old, Peppa will feel all the emotions – joy, jealousy, excitement, and confusion – as she becomes a bigger big sister,” Cafer says. “Facing new experiences with confidence and curiosity is what Peppa does best.”.

Peppa Pig is a superstar – and never before has a pregnancy been such a massive deal in a hit children’s animated TV series. It has, however, been broached before – and by this very programme. In the 2011 Peppa Pig episode “Mummy Rabbit’s Bump”, the mother of Peppa’s friend Rebecca Rabbit is rushed to hospital to have twins – and Daddy Rabbit misses the birth because he is parking the car. Pregnancy has also been touched upon in the Australian animated series Bluey, about a six-year-old puppy, which is the current most-watched series for preschoolers.

In 2024, an episode revealed that Brandy, Bluey’s aunt, is pregnant, marking a significant plot development for the character who, it’s been hinted at, has previously struggled with infertility issues. There are rumours, too, that Bluey’s mum Chilli will be pregnant in the show’s forthcoming season, while many have speculated – via clues sprinkled throughout the show – that Bluey himself is a “rainbow” puppy, meaning offspring born after a parent has had a miscarriage.