Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street‘s Dee-Dee Bailey will face tension with Asha Alahan in upcoming episodes, as her new storyline about racial injustice in maternity care continues.
Dee-Dee’s emotional storyline began last week when she gave birth to a baby girl. After facing severe complications during the birth, Dee-Dee suffered a haemorrhage and underwent an emergency hysterectomy.
Dee-Dee, who received poor treatment at the hospital and was dismissed by a number of medical professionals, has wondered whether this behaviour was linked to her ethnicity and is in the process of making a complaint to the hospital.
In scenes that will air on Wednesday, April 16 and Friday, April 18, Dee-Dee attends a meeting with a rep from the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).
The rep assures Dee-Dee that they’re investigating her complaint and Zoe, the midwife, was to blame.
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Dee-Dee later finds Asha, who is a paramedic, deep in conversation with Zoe outside the hospital. Zoe tells Dee-Dee that she’s sorry for what she went through, but insists that none of it was her fault.
Asha soon visits Dee-Dee at home and asks her to reconsider complaining, as it could ruin Zoe’s career. However, Dee-Dee stands her ground and reiterates to Asha that she was a victim of racism.
Later, Dee-Dee sees Alya and tells her that despite all her hard work, the hospital has since completed its investigation and found no wrongdoing.
Alya accompanies Dee-Dee to a support group and after chatting to another mother who is there, Dee-Dee realises that everyone present has suffered a traumatic birth experience.
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In The Rovers, Dee-Dee shares information about a study that found Black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth, and the group of women with her are shocked.
Dee-Dee later has a tense conversation with Asha, telling her that if the hospital won’t hold Zoe accountable then she’ll have to do it herself.
The soap has been working with Birthrights, Motivational Mums Club and Five X More on the storyline after an official report, which was published last year, showed that Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
“Having heard some of these stats, the imbalance is shocking. The biggest thing when people hear these stats is they just assume it must be global, but no, we’re talking about right here in the UK,” said Channique Sterling-Brown when Dee-Dee’s new storyline was first announced.
“I was talking to one of the producers at Corrie about it, probably last year, just in passing. I remember saying: ‘If Beyoncé and Serena Williams are two of the richest, most famous Black women in the world and they had terrible birthing experiences, that’s such a bigger problem.
“‘That’s not just some malicious person that is inherently racist, it’s a huge, systemic issue and unless we’re talking about it, there’s no way to fix it’.”
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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