Trixie business! HELEN'S RISKY PREGNANCY

CALL THE MIDWIFE STAR HELEN’S REAL-LIFE BABY DRAMA

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 learned on Call the Midwife.