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Divorce While Pregnant in Florida

Reviewed by the Amicably document team · Updated August 21, 2026

Florida law does not stop you from filing for divorce because you or your spouse is pregnant, and there is no rule that makes you wait for the baby to arrive before you open a case. What pregnancy changes is which petition you use, and in practice, when a judge can actually sign off on the parts of the case that involve the child.

This guide walks through why the fastest uncontested route is off the table during pregnancy, which package applies instead, what the court can and can't decide before the birth, and what happens once the baby arrives.

Can you file for divorce while pregnant in Florida?

Yes. There is no statute or rule that requires either spouse to wait for a birth before starting a Florida divorce. Florida's own instructions for the standard dissolution petition are direct about it: you use the with-children petition "if you and your spouse have a dependent or minor child(ren) together, or a spouse is pregnant." Pregnancy by itself is enough to trigger that track, no matter how far along it is, and whether or not the couple has any other children.

So filing itself isn't delayed. What changes is the petition you file and, in many cases, how soon the court will resolve the pieces of the case that depend on the child actually existing.

Why Simplified Dissolution isn't an option

Package 1, Simplified Dissolution, is Florida's fastest and cheapest uncontested route: one joint petition, one short hearing, both spouses giving up trial and appeal rights. It is only available when a specific list of facts is all true at once, and one of them is that the wife is not currently pregnant.

That single fact rules out Simplified Dissolution for the whole case, even when both spouses agree on absolutely everything else. The rule doesn't distinguish between a due date next month and one six months out, and it doesn't ask whose child it is or how the pregnancy relates to the marriage ending. If the wife is pregnant, Package 1 is off the table.

Which package you file instead

Route-scoped: a pregnancy moves the case to Package 3, the same uncontested-with-children track used by couples who already have a minor child together. You file the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with Dependent or Minor Child(ren), Form 12.901(b)(1); the form is written to cover both situations, an existing child and a pregnancy, in a single document.

Everything else in Package 3 comes with it: a UCCJEA affidavit, a parenting plan, a child support worksheet, financial affidavits, and the with-children final judgment. The paperwork list doesn't change based on whether the child has been born yet. The case opens as a with-children case from day one.

What the court can decide now vs. what waits for the birth

Florida courts can only rule on parenting time, decision-making, and child support for a child the law recognizes, meaning a child who has been born. Nothing else about the case has to wait for that: property, debt, and alimony get decided the same way they would in any uncontested divorce.

Your timeline: filing to final judgment

The filing steps and the statutory wait run on the same clock as any uncontested Florida divorce. The parenting-plan and support pieces are what wait on the child's birth.

1. Day 0You file the with-children petition, Form 12.901(b)(1), noting the pregnancy. The case opens as a with-children case even though the child isn't born yet.
2. Day 20+Florida's minimum 20-day wait between filing and any final judgment runs from the filing date, the same as any divorce.
3. BirthThe baby arrives. This is the point where the court has an actual child to rule on: a name, a birth date, and the facts a parenting plan and support worksheet are built from.
4. After the birthThe parenting plan, time-sharing schedule, and completed child support worksheet are finalized and filed. Both parents' parenting-course certificates must also be on file before a with-children final judgment can be entered.
5. Final judgmentThe court enters the with-children final judgment, Form 12.990(b)(1), closing the case.

The paperwork Package 3 requires

This is the same document list as any uncontested divorce with children. Pregnancy doesn't add or remove forms; it only determines which track opens the case.

If paternity is a question

If there's any real question about who the child's legal father is, that falls outside an uncontested, agree-on-everything process. Florida presumes a child born to a married woman is a child of that marriage, and undoing that presumption, called disestablishing paternity, is its own legal proceeding with its own form.

If both spouses and the biological father agree on who the legal parents are, a family law attorney can help resolve parentage alongside the divorce. This situation needs an attorney, not a self-help packet; it isn't something Amicably prepares.

What happens after the baby arrives

Once the baby is born, the practical next step is finishing whatever the court held open: filing the completed parenting plan, the child support worksheet with real numbers, and each parent's parenting-course certificate. Depending on how the filing circuit handled the timing, that can mean the case was left open and simply continues, or it can mean the divorce already finalized everything else and the parents file a supplemental agreement afterward to formalize parenting time and support.

Either way, a verbal understanding about the new baby isn't enough on its own. Get it into a signed, filed agreement so it's actually enforceable if anything changes later.

What this costs

Route-scoped: a pregnancy-triggered case still uses Amicably's flat $99 fee, the same as any Package 3, uncontested-with-children case. Pregnancy doesn't change what Amicably charges. The county filing fee is roughly $408, paid to the clerk, separate from Amicably's fee. The one addition that comes with any with-children case, pregnancy or not, is the parenting course each parent completes, typically $15 to $40 per parent, paid directly to the course provider, not to Amicably.

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