Wiktionary
prep.phr. (context slang archaic English) Confined to bed because of pregnancy.
Usage examples of "in the straw".
He sang a little song or two, of the sort he used to sing at his dinner-parties, curled himself up in the straw, and had an excellent night’.
Flynn twitched and flopped in the straw at the Mottemage's side, then lay still.
After a while I went back to sleep in the straw and was awakened by the sound of the cell door opening.
The old man was standing by the door, inserting the bottles carefully in the straw bag.
I knocked out Turkey in the Straw, Nehru's Opus 81, and the introduction to Morgenstern's Dawn of the 22nd Century, as arranged for squeeze boxes.
And the lady in the straw hat was asleep on the sofa with Suzys uncle Rob.
When we were not eating in the kitchen, we wrestled in the courtyard or in the straw of the box stall.
He smelled around the stuffed man as if he suspected there might be a nest of rats in the straw, and he often growled in an unfriendly way at the Scarecrow.
The sun rose, and still the midwives had not said Morgaine might lie down in the straw, though she was so weary that she stumbled and could hardly put one foot before another.