Emma Willis: Delivering Babies

Emma Willis is keen to create a good first impression, but the first day doesn't start out as planned when she forgets to bring in the right shoes and has to call musician and actor husband Matt, to come to her rescue.

Now in her second week at Watford General 
Hospital as a trainee Maternity Support Worker, Emma confides in husband Matt, that she's struggling to find her place and feel useful in her new job.
But Emma receives a confidence boost when working in Triage, the maternity A&E, and is called to help midwife Meg assess 39 weeks 
pregnant Amy, who's concerned about the lack of movement of her baby. 
Emma has to take a manual blood pressure reading for Amy, for the first time in 18 months and when Meg checks her work, Emma's delighted to hear that she got it right.

Approaching the half-way point of her time at Watford General Hospital, Emma is called in for a meeting with boss Wendy, Head of Midwifery, to see how she's progressing in her Maternity Support Worker training.

Emma still has a lot to get through and is eager step up her training. She's thrown in at the deep end and attends pool evacuation training, learning how to remove a patient from a birthing pool in an emergency.

And Oz, Maternity Support Worker Lead Trainer, shows Emma how to remove a catheter on a dummy. But after a bad experience in her own life, Emma is anxious about having to practice this on a real patient.

TV Presenter Emma Willis is now past the halfway point in her job at Watford General Hospital. With time running out to get her Maternity Support Worker qualification, Emma seeks advice from mentor and Birthing Centre Manager, Jo, on how to accelerate her training. Emma admits that she often lacks confidence to excel at the jobs that'sshe's being asked to do. To boost her confidence and help her get more skills signed off, Jo takes her under her wing and arranges for Emma to carry out two critical tests on new-born babies. One test checks the oxygen saturation levels of a baby which can be an early indication of potential heart defects. And the other, a heel prick test, measures the glucose levels in a new-born. If left untreated, extremely low blood glucose levels, can lead to brain injury or problems with a baby's development. Emma takes an active role helping to support first time mum Aayushi, who comes in to be induced but ends up having a difficult six-day labour. And in the Delivery Suite, the tables are turned for senior midwife Bianca, who becomes a patient when she comes in to have her first baby. 

TV presenter Emma Willis has just a few weeks left at Watford General Hospital to get her Maternity Support Worker (MSW) qualification. She confides in musician and actor husband Matt, that her plan is to try and finish her training by the end of week, but Emma's got a lot to do to hit this deadline. Emma needs to get her MSW qualification because her hospital bosses are expecting her to run an ante-natal clinic for expectant Mums completely on her own. She can't do this until she's completed and passed all her assessments and one of the biggest hurdles, she faces is getting her surgical skills signed off in theatre. To help her prepare for her clinic, MSW Project lead Oz, gets Emma to take the lead in a weekly pre-operative clinic where expectant mums are reviewed ahead of their planned caesarean sections. Here Emma is faced with two women who have hidden veins, which means taking their bloods for the crucial test they need before their operation becomes a big problem. And in theatre, it's the moment of truth for Emma in surgery when she's assessed during the caesarean of second time Mum Lizzie.

In the series finale, Emma's 10 weeks at the hospital draw to a close. But having now qualified as a Maternity Support Worker (MSW), Emma must face the biggest challenges of her NHS career – running an ante-natal clinic for expectant Mums completely on her own. To help her prepare, mentor Jo, calls Emma in for a meeting. Emma explains that her biggest worry is time because in her practice session, it took 40 minutes to process one patient and she confesses that she's also lacking in confidence. On the day of the clinic, MSW Lead Trainer Oz, helps her set up but then it's down to Emma to assess all the patients on her list on her own. It's a big responsibility as Emma has to run tests and record vital information for the patients' medical teams, on the hospital's digital system. Emma helps midwife Danielle assess a new patient, Krystle, a surrogate, who's carrying a child for her friends Connor and Mark. Two years after starting the process, it's an anxious wait for Connor and Mark, to meet their longed for first baby.And on Emma's last day, the staff have a surprise in store.

With just two weeks to go till Emma's time at the hospital draws to an end, there are still key training elements to tackle. This week sees Emma learning how to monitor newborn babies for serious illnesses and out in the community Emma is supervised as she carries out her first ever blood test on a five-day old baby.