What does the title of the movie The Sterile Cuckoo mean?

Answer 1

My impression was that it was a reference to Pookie's false pregnancy in the story. In her desperation to hang onto Jerry she experiences a 'hysterical pregnancy' or something close to this, and even explains to him that a woman's body and bloat up, and then go back down due to this syndrone. Pookie is like a Cuckoo bird herself, quirky and different from the other birds- too different in fact for the milk toast Jerry who leaves her in the end.