Fans of the much-loved midwife series Delivering Babies, listen up.
UKTV has just announced that Emma Willis will be returning to W for a brand-new series of the award-winning show, but this time there's a twist, as the families are preparing to give birth in the middle of a pandemic.
Filming is already underway on the Firecracker Films-produced Emma Willis: Delivering Babies 2020, which marks the third full series of the franchise for W and will follow Emma as she tells the stories of families whose birthing plans have been thrown up in the air by lockdown in the UK in 2020.
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Emma, a fully qualified maternity care assistant, will be helping parents-to-be across the UK as they prepare to welcome their baby into the new-normal.
With everyone practicing social distancing right now, the births were shot by the families themselves, providing a unique and intimate insight into what it means to bring new life into a world that's been turned upside down.
The series will follow them in the run up to their births and when they return home, with Emma on hand to offer support and guidance on everything from breastfeeding to sleep routines and keeping a healthy mindset.
Emma said: "It's obviously been extremely challenging to make any TV so far this year, let alone a show based in a hospital, so I'm really pleased that we've still been able to check in with a number of families for this latest show.
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"I'm obviously gutted not to be alongside the fantastic team at the Princess Alexandra Hospital this year, but I've been keeping in touch with them through lockdown and hope to be working back on the wards one day soon."
Senior Commissioning Editor Helen Nightingale says: "Hospital access was not an option this year, so we're thrilled that Firecracker have been able to produce this new series and Emma can still help families as she's been trained to do.
"For me, the only question I asked was what would Emma do if she couldn't be in the hospital doing her job as an MCA? And this is the next best thing. We're incredibly thankful to Emma and the production team for coming up with this innovative solution that means we can bring Delivering Babies back to W soon."
The original Delivering Babies series has proved a hit since it launched in 2018, and was awarded a Broadcast Digital Award in 2019 for the Popular Factual category.
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"It initially saw Emma live out her dream of becoming a midwife for 10 weeks, where she joined the midwifery team at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex doing tea rounds, fulfilling cleaning duties and watching as babies were delivered.
Pre-lockdown, a spin-off of the show also returned to our screens for a two-part special, Emma Willis: Special Births, which saw Emma meet up with a number of parents and their new arrivals six months on from the birth of their initial filming.
The latest instalment won't be airing until 2021 so there's a little while to wait yet, but we're sure it will come around in no time!
Featured Image Credit: UKTV
Topics: Emma Willis, TV News, TV Entertainment