CALL THE MIDWIFE!
CALL THE MIDWIFE STAR HELEN’S REAL-LIFE BABY DRAMA
Helen’s risky birth
As Nurse Trixie Franklin on Call the Midwife, Helen George has seen her fair share of delivery-room dramas. And when she was faced with her own health scare the day before giving birth to her first child, her experiences on the show gave her all the strength she needed to see it through.
In the late stages of pregnancy, Helen was out walking her dog when she suddenly felt like her blood was “literally boiling” and she developed “an itchiness all over my body – even in my ears and in my eyes”.
A day later the actress, who has assisted in dozens of fictional deliveries in the beloved show about a group of midwives in ‘60s London, underwent a Caesarean to bring her baby daughter, Wren Ivy, safely into the world.
It turned out she’d been suffering from a potentially serious liver disorder called Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), in which bile acids build up in the bloodstream.
Given her long association with the hit show, many fans assumed the former Hollyoaks star would have preferred a natural delivery, but Helen says nothing could have been further from the truth.
“I chose to have a C-section,” says the actress. “It coincided with the fact that I had to deliver her early but even without that, I would have gone for an elective Caesarian because of what I’d learnt on Call the Midwife.
“Working on the show means that lots of people tell you their horror stories about birth. I’m not against natural birth.
I’m pro whatever you feel is right for you.”
The show’s producers went to great lengths to hide the star’s baby bump as she worked through her pregnancy in 2017.
Instead of her usual fitted dresses, she instead sported roomy capes, bulky fur coats and the odd shawl, but by the time season seven landed in viewers’ living rooms, most fans knew she’d given birth.
It didn’t, however, stop some social media trolls from making disparaging remarks about her weight gain – with one calling her “massive” and saying that she should be put on a diet – and for new mum Helen, it was the last straw.
She replied, “Sorry if my chins
offended you. I chose to feed my baby healthily and not starve myself in a selfish act to look good on TV. Would you say this is a pregnant lady’s face?”
More than 32,000 fans supported her comments and while she says her outburst was out of character, she doesn’t regret it.
“I often just bite my tongue, but the weight thing? I thought that was rude. And it wasn’t just on social media. Those people exist in everyday life. The things you hear as a pregnant woman if you’re seen eating in public: ‘Woah, eating for two now?’ Constant little comments like that really bug you and hurt you when your body is changing during pregnancy.
“Then, after the birth, you’re expected to be thin within a month. It’s a huge pressure.
I just broke. It was like, ‘You’re not getting away with that.’”
Kiwi viewers are currently enjoying season 10 of Call the Midwife on TVNZ 1 and there’s no end in sight yet for the feel-good show that has audiences laughing and crying in equal measure.
Helen, 36, has been there since the beginning and in these #MeToo times, she says it’s been a safe haven.
“The fact I’m blonde and small-featured has meant I have found in the past that my voice has not been listened to. If there’s ever an issue or a problem, I’m seen as making trouble. Whereas if there’s an issue on Call the Midwife, it is listened to and understood.”
In 2011, Helen married her Hotel Babylon co-star Oliver Boot. Four years later they split and soon after she began dating actor Jack Ashton, 35, who at the time was playing Reverend Tom Hereward on Call the Midwife.
‘After the birth, you’re expected to be thin within a month. I just broke’
These days the couple, threeyear-old Wren Ivy and their rescue Jack Russell live in London’s East End, close to where the series is set – although it’s actually shot much further afield in Kent.
Helen says it was a “slow process”, moving from friends and co-stars to something more. “All of us on the show are mates. We all hang out together and Jack always really makes me laugh.”
As for future babies, however, they’re in no hurry. “We’re happy as we are,” she smiles. “Not yet, anyway!”