Emmerdale’s Moira Barton will suffer from post-natal depression.
The farm owner – portrayed by Natalie J. Robb – gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last week, despite not knowing she was pregnant, after she was caught up in a barn blaze with her arch enemy Emma Barton (Gillian Kearney), but things look set to get tough for Moira as she struggles to bond with her son out of fear she’ll let him down following the tragic death of her daughter Holly (Sophie Powles) last year.
Speaking to the Daily Star newspaper, Natalie said: "Moira hasn’t been looking after herself, and if anything, because of her age, she probably thought she was menopausal. What you’re going to see is Moira struggling to bond with the baby.
"She also has this fear inside her that she might not be able to save this baby because of what happened to Holly [who died of a drugs overdose].
"She feels responsible for Holly’s death and she keeps thinking about how she’d cope if it happened again. It’s very daunting for her and sadly it’s only going to get worse."
Moira is also riddled with guilt as she’s been boozing and "doing stuff she shouldn’t have been doing" while she was pregnant because she didn’t know she was expecting.
The 42-year-old actress said: "Of course it came as a bit of a shock, but this is soapland, and I’ve learnt to expect the unexpected.
"I was able to speak to a lady who’d had a baby and didn’t know she was pregnant. It was her fifth child and she said that afterwards she felt a tremendous amount of guilt about all the things she’d done because she didn’t know she was pregnant.
"You’ll have a drink without thinking about it and do things that you probably shouldn’t have. The main thing is you feel very guilty and defensive because no-body believes that you didn’t know."
Emmerdale’s Moira Barton to have post-natal depression
