Emma Willis talks Delivering Babies, training and what we can expect from season 4
With increased responsibility, sees Emma not only caring for mothers and newborns, but also working closely with midwives to master new techniques. Throughout the 10-week journey, she'll face rigorous assessments, pushing her skills to the limit as she strives to earn her new role.
With season 4 just around the corner, we sat down with the inspiring Emma Willis to delve into her transformative journey, the rigorous training she's undergone and what's driving her excitement for the new season…
Well, thank you very much for your time! We’re very much looking forward to the new series of Delivering Babies coming out later this year, and have a few questions to dive deeper into the series, your experiences and what we can expect from the new season.
You've previously done a 12-week Maternity Care Assistant (MCA) training for maternity care assistants. How did you find the experience overall and is there anything that you found was the most rewarding part of it [from any of your training so far]?
Oh God from any of the training?! I mean I suppose the most rewarding part of it is that you get to be at such an incredible and pivotal part of someone's life, you know and the fact that people will let you into such a private and life-changing moment is just the biggest honour and privilege really. And that happens every series, which is brilliant, so that gets to happen again and again!
I think it's just amazing that the teams will let us in as well because they really have their work cut out for them and they are incredibly busy, but they allow us in and let us showcase what they do and the incredible work that they do. So, kind of across the board, we just feel really lucky that you know these teams take us in, they take some of their wing, they let us show what they do, and that families allow us into that most remarkable of moments in their lives.
Honestly, it does sound extremely magical! Is there anything that you found surprising throughout your time doing, this that you may not have considered before? Or anything that has stood out and become a core memory/core moment that you think ‘I will never forget that’?
That people have let me in to do it! I still can't quite believe that – genuinely, I can't believe that – I get to do it. I think because this was always something that I thought I would do with my life as a, you know, full-time job, when I was growing up, a hospital is kind of where I wanted to be. And then I ended up doing something so far removed from what I had anticipated.
Now that I kind of get the chance to go and do it through a job that I never expected to be in is kind of a really surreal and strange opportunity, and I'll be forever grateful that I do get to do it and that people take the time to kind of train me so that I can legitimately and legally work in that environment… it blows my mind honestly every time I think about it.
It really is amazing.
Yeah, it's bonkers!
So, talking about the new season [of Delivering Babies], it will be filmed at Watford General Hospital. How does it feel to continue your training in a new setting?
Terrifying. I was really comfortable and happy at Princess Alexandra and I was super comfortable and happy with the people that worked there. They had become friends and I love them dearly still.
And honestly just scared – I wanted the challenge [but] when it was presented to me, I was a little bit unsure.
But then I thought, actually, you know it's a new role, it's kind of a different level of qualification that I was gonna be doing, and I suppose I've kind of said to myself that I wanted to lean into my fears a bit more because I'm very happy feeling safe, which I think is a normal human reaction. But I thought right, ‘OK, it's now or never, really, I suppose – let's kind of give it a go’, and it's intimidating. It was a huge hospital, a massive ward, a really big team, and lots of people. I didn't know anyone, I had a new skill set that had to learn, new mentors and new trainers. Everything was just new and, even though you've kind of built up a certain skill set around a bunch of people that you've got to know over the years, and love and you feel safe with, it is really intimidating to go and do it somewhere else. Especially because it's not your day-to-day job. You're like, ‘they're just going to think I'm an absolute joke while they're trying to be serious and professional’.
It's like an elevated level of first day at school, but with more responsibility.
Absolutely. Much more responsibility and much more blood.
As the seasons continue, do you also assume to continue your training? I mean, I guess there's definitely a lot to learn – I don't feel like this is the type of thing you could ever really stop learning about.
No, you always keep learning, but it's one of those things as well where I’m there for a short amount of time really. You know, I get three months of the year there and so every time I go back I have to go back and brush up on what I already knew, so that takes time, and then you start to learn a new skill set. So, the next time you go back, what you've kind of learned initially has become muscle memory, and you can do that, but it's the newer skill sets that you've learned over the year or the previous year that you need to go back and brush up on again. So, there's stuff I've just learned and just qualified with, I know that I could do it and I could do it competently, but now I'm not there, so, if I ever went back, I'd have to relearn all of that again before I could learn anything else.
And it's spending time on the job, isn't it? For it to become real and normal and something that you feel comfortable doing. So that's why I have to get to go back – because I just learned something and now left – I’ve got to make sure I can cement it into my muscle memory to be able to do it at any point of going anywhere.
Finally, what can we look forward to in the new series?
Oh well, loads of lovely babies, a brand new hospital and we have a very special episode 6 which is the last episode and that is a story that we've never followed before actually on any of the series and it's beautiful.
Oh, it's like secret spoilers, but without the spoilers at all. Love it!
Season 4 of Emma Willis: Delivering Babies starts Thursday 5 September at 9pm on U&W, or stream the full box set on U.