HOLLYWOOD -- Mother's Day is taking on a whole new meaning for TV series regulars Ellen Pompeo (Grey's Anatomy) and Molly Ringwald (The Secret Life of the American Teenager), who are both very much in the family way.

How and if their respective shows choose to deal with their pregnancies is another matter.

If you're on a hit TV show and you announce that you're expecting (not in a salary bump way), there are basically two ways they can deal with a baby on board: Work 'em in or, as is usually the case, work around 'em.

Since its, uh, inception, television has essentially dealt with real-life blessed events accordingly, depending, of course, on the series or characters in question.

Work 'em In

Lucy and Ricky Ricardo may have slept in separate beds (even though they were occasionally shown -- gasp! -- pushed together) but that didn't stop them from making a little ratings history with the birth of Little Ricky.

Rather than trying to hide the fact that she was expecting her second child with Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball and her writers decided to incorporate the pregnancy into the show.

Allowing art to imitate life is a good way to revitalize a fading plot line, as the writers of Alias discovered, when they opted to share Jennifer Garner's pregnancy with her high-spying small screen alter ego, Sydney Bristow.

Given her character's reputation for getting around, when Cheers regular Rhea Perlman was expecting one of her three children with husband Danny DeVito, it wasn't exactly a stretch to show Carla Tortelli with yet another bun in the oven.

Work around 'em

The truth may have been out there, but when Gillian Anderson was expecting her daughter, Piper, during shooting of the first season of X-Files, the producers built in maternity leave by having her Dana Scully character abducted by aliens, rather than working the pregnancy into the plot line.

When an expectant Susan St. James was seriously starting to show during Season 4 of Kate & Allie, the show's writers contrived a plot that had her unattached Kate McArdle character lying in a hospital bed with a broken leg.

Those big '80s clothes proved quite handy when Cosby Show mom Phylicia Rashad was pregnant with her daughter -- her Clair Huxtable character was already plenty occupied with five kids; while Sex and the City's stable of fashion designers found interesting ways to disguise Sarah Jessica Parker's baby bump.

Rather than try to hide the fact behind clothes or very high kitchen counters, other shows decided to draw attention to it, without going the baby route.

When Frasier's Jane Leeves was visibly pregnant with her first child, the show's sarcastic scribes shipped her Daphne character off to a fat farm.

More recently the creative team behind How I Met Your Mother attributed cast member Alyson Hannigan's pronounced tummy to a hot-dog eating contest.

So, whichever way your respective shows choose to handle the news, may all you expectant moms enjoy an especially maternal Mother's Day.