New Coronation Street storyline explores racial injustice in maternity care

ITV Granada Entertainment Correspondent Caroline Whitmore met actress Channique Sterling-Brown to talk about a new Coronation Street storyline exploring racial injustice in maternity care.

A new storyline on Coronation Street will highlight racial injustice in maternity care when character Dee-Dee Bailey suffers serious complications during the birth of her baby.

Dee-Dee, who is played by actress Channique Sterling-Brown, haemorrhages and has to undergo an emergency hysterectomy after being sent home from hospital despite being in extreme pain.

As she recovers she questions whether the mistakes made during her treatment were avoidable and linked to her ethnicity.

It comes as latest figures from Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries (MBRRACE-UK) show black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.

The ITV soap has been working with charities Birthrights and Motivational Mum's Club, which help mothers advocate for themselves and protect their human rights, as well as Black maternal health charity FivexMore.

Channique, who has played Dee-Dee on the cobbles since 2022, prepared for the storyline by speaking to a mum with lived experience.

She said: "It was emotional to hear her story and just finding the truth in that as well. Many of the conversations have been really hard but really helpful to hear what some women went through.

"The story we're trying to tell is one of truth. I don’t think there is any malice in any of Dee-Dee's treatment.

"But it is a case of her being on an overstretched and understaffed ward. She's not being fully heard because of assumptions that are potentially being made.

"I also think she maybe is a little bit in denial, because I don’t think she’s probably quite ready to have the baby.

"It just ends up in a bit of an amalgamation of her pain being dismissed, and suddenly finding herself in a severe situation and she is really scared.

"It's really frightening how quickly that develops, and how, if someone had intervened a bit sooner and picked up on those symptoms a bit sooner, it might have meant that such drastic measures wouldn’t have needed to be taken.”

Charity Birthrights said they are calling on the government to introduce a new Maternity Care Act to "make clear how human rights law applies to all those who manage, deliver and regulate maternity care."

Birthrights co-CEOs Janaki Mahadevan and Shanthi Gunesekera said: “It’s extremely important that a show like Coronation Street is highlighting the experiences of Black women in maternity care.

"The data has long shown how Black women are more likely to suffer physical and psychological harm through pregnancy and birth.

"This is a crisis that has gone on far too long and we hope that by bringing this to the wider public attention we can increase the movement for change.

"We are pleased that Coronation Street is taking this issue to its audience and showing the personal impact of experiences which sadly affect far too many Black women and birthing people.

"We know that individuals, families and communities have been left with a lifetime of trauma as a result of experiences like Dee-Dee’s."

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