B y this point, Marie Laure Frere, a Newton mother of three kids under age 4, knows how to keep the early months of a pregnancy secret. Here’s her favorite trick: When she goes out with a group, she arrives first, and surreptitiously asks the bartender to make her drinks virgin.

“It’s like wildfire the minute you don’t put the cocktail glass to your mouth,” Frere said. “My husband’s family is the first one to start gossiping about who’s not doing what.”