You can get life insurance while pregnant: Aviva's guide (updated June 2026) says "You can apply for life insurance while pregnant, and pregnancy alone doesn’t usually affect your eligibility or monthly cost." What can matter is a medical problem during the pregnancy. This page covers what insurers ask, what complications can mean for an application, and what children's critical illness cover says about pregnancy and newborns.

To see how insurers might treat your own pregnancy, you can ask a broker who is FCA-authorised to ring you; the request takes a couple of minutes through the form here and costs nothing.

What do life insurers ask when you are pregnant?

The application is the same one everyone fills in. LV= says "You’ll be asked the same health and lifestyle questions as anyone else applying for cover." Post Office, whose life insurance is underwritten by Scottish Friendly, says in its guide (August 2026) that when you get a quote, "we don’t ask whether you’re pregnant or not".

Where a question could be skewed by the pregnancy, the insurers' guides say how to answer it:

  • Weight. Legal & General (September 2026) asks you to "tell us the weight you were immediately before your pregnancy", and Aviva says it expects your pre-pregnancy weight.
  • Smoking. Legal & General says it "won’t categorise you as a non-smoker if you’ve only given up smoking since becoming pregnant". Aviva says insurers usually consider your smoking status over at least the last 12 months.
  • Alcohol. Aviva says to give your pre-pregnancy amount, and Legal & General says it will "take your pregnancy into account when reviewing your application".

Answer as accurately as you can. Legal & General warns that inaccurate information found later can mean a claim is not paid and the policy is cancelled or amended. What you have to tell an insurer is set out in life insurance disclosure requirements, and the alcohol and smoking questions in life insurance and alcohol and how much more life insurance costs for smokers.

Is life insurance more expensive when you are pregnant?

Legal & General says "Your pregnancy will not affect your L&G life insurance premiums." Aviva's guide says "Most insurers won't take pregnancy into account and won't increase your premiums, decline or defer an application solely because of pregnancy." LV= takes the same line: being pregnant should not, by itself, be the reason an insurer charges more or turns an application down.

Each of those sentences is about pregnancy on its own. Legal & General adds that any applicant has to disclose their health status, "which could theoretically include medical issues related to the pregnancy that may affect the cover we can offer".

So the price you are offered while pregnant is usually set by the same things as anyone else's: how old you are, your health and smoking history, and how much cover you want for how many years. Each of those is explained in how much life insurance costs.

What happens if there are complications in pregnancy?

This is the point where an application can be treated differently. Legal & General's guide says "L&G will take into account all medical issues during a life insurance application, whether related to your pregnancy or not, but will consider all applications." Post Office's guide says "What may impact your premiums, or your eligibility to get a policy, is if you have any complications from pregnancy", and adds that there are too many variables for its guide to set out how each complication affects the price.

Postponing is one of three decisions Legal & General names. Its policy summary for its direct Life Insurance and Critical Illness Cover (QGI14786, October 2026) includes an accidental death benefit while an application is being assessed: it lasts up to 90 days, or ends sooner when L&G decides to "accept, postpone or decline your application".

Which of those decisions a given complication might lead to, and for how long, varies from one insurer to the next; if you would like it looked at for your own history, the broker can go through it with you when they ring, at no cost. If you have a condition that is not pregnancy-related, life insurance with medical conditions covers how insurers approach those.

Do you need to tell your insurer if you already have a policy?

If a policy is already in place, the guides are reassuring. Aviva says "you don't need to inform your insurer about your pregnancy. Pregnancy does not affect your existing cover or premiums." Legal & General says you "are not obliged to disclose your pregnancy to your insurer, and your premiums won’t be affected".

Post Office says that if you died because of pregnancy complications while holding one of its policies, your family would receive the payout you signed up for. Each of these firms is speaking about its own policies, so the wording of the policy you hold is what applies to you.

What does children's critical illness cover say about pregnancy and newborns?

Critical illness cover is where pregnancy complications can appear. Aviva's guide says the plan "can also provide cover for children, and some providers include pregnancy complications cover". Royal London, which points buyers to a financial adviser, offers its Children's Critical Illness Cover at three levels. The pregnancy benefit is listed in the description of the top level, Enhanced, and not in the Standard one: "You and your children will also be covered for an extra additional condition – pregnancy complications (£5,000 for each affected pregnancy)."

For newborns, the wording turns on age and on conditions present at birth:

  • Legal & General (direct version, October 2026): if you choose its Critical Illness Cover, a child from 30 days old up to 18 (21 in full-time education), and any child you have later, is covered for an illness diagnosed before the policy ends, but "Your children will not be covered: ... For any condition that was present at birth."
  • Aviva (consumer page): cover applies to children aged between 30 days and 18 (21 if in full time education), children born after the policy starts included, and it won't pay if the "critical illness was present at birth (whether diagnosed or not)" or the "child had symptoms of the critical illness before they were covered by the policy".
  • Royal London: children from birth to age 22 (23 if in full time education) are covered for "child-specific conditions plus our main critical illness conditions" at the Enhanced level.

Which child-specific conditions a given insurer lists, and how its definitions apply to a baby, is a question the broker can answer for free when they call you back.

The wider picture is in what child critical illness cover is and critical illness cover and pregnancy, and what children's cover pays if a child dies is in life insurance for children. How the combined policy works is in life and critical illness cover, and where parents fit among those who buy cover is in who needs cover.

Frequently asked questions

Does life insurance cover pregnancy?

Life insurance pays out if you die during the policy term, and Post Office says that includes a death from pregnancy complications under its policy. Payments for pregnancy complications while you are alive belong to critical illness cover, where some insurers include them.

Do Vitality and Zurich life insurance treat pregnancy differently?

That depends on the insurer, because each one sets its own underwriting rules. A broker can check how either would look at an application from you, free, as part of the call-back.

Can I get life insurance if I had a complication in a past pregnancy?

You can still apply. If a health question covers what happened, answer it fully and honestly; as the section on complications above explains, Legal & General looks at medical issues whether or not they came from a pregnancy, and postponing is one of its possible decisions alongside accepting and declining.

Whenever you are ready, a request through the page's form is all it takes: the broker rings you, at no charge and with nothing to sign.

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