Exclusive: Home and Away star Sophie Dillman discusses emotional baby storyline
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Home and Away spoilers follow for UK viewers.
Home and Away star Sophie Dillman has spoken to Digital Spy about Ziggy Astoni's emotional new storyline.
Next week's UK episodes explore Ziggy's struggles as a new mother, as she goes missing after several days of doubting herself.
Ziggy has struggled to bond with her newborn daughter, and is feeling exhausted.
Related: 12 huge Home and Away spoilers for next week
Dean Thompson tries his best to provide reassurance and support his partner, but he panics when he later discovers Ziggy has gone AWOL.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Sophie explained: "I think it was really important to explore. I'm really glad we got to see the full trajectory of Ziggy's pregnancy.
"We saw the nine months – we saw each trimester and what that brought. We then saw the birth, the aftermath and both sides of parenthood – the excitement, the fear and that sort of thing.
"Postnatal depression is really common and it's really sad that it's not spoken about more.
"It's also nice to see that Summer Bay is such a community and they all come together and help Ziggy and Dean in this storyline."
Related: Home and Away star Matt Evans hints at how long he'll stay on the show
Sophie and her real-life partner Patrick O'Connor, who plays Dean, both spoke to loved ones while exploring Ziggy's struggles.
She said: "We've got friends who've spoken about being affected by it. It needs to be spoken about more in greater detail. It felt like an honour to be able to do that on screen.
"My goal was to bring the most realistic version of that I could without personal experience, and hopefully I did that.
"If we were staying in the show, it's definitely something that we would have loved to explore for even longer. From speaking to new parents, it's just such a whirlwind of nappies, tears, lack of sleep and everything in between.
"Also trying to get a new baby to do the things that were scripted, that would have been hilarious!"
Related: Home and Away's Kirby and Theo share upsetting news with Remi
The arrival of the baby is one of the last major milestones for Ziggy and Dean before they depart Home and Away. Their exit scenes have already aired in Australia, but they'll stick around on UK screens for the next few weeks.
"It was always unexpected that they took on the roles they did in the pregnancy – Dean was all for it, while Ziggy was unsure," Sophie added. "It was a really interesting choice from the writers and we really enjoyed that.
"It was so much fun working with a baby on set – although it does make it tricky! You're so in the moment because you have to react to what the baby's giving you. You can't tell a baby what to do, so it made it really fun on set.
"Everyone loves a baby so everyone's happy! I had the best time."
Home and Away airs weekdays at 1.45pm on Channel 5 and 6pm on 5STAR. First-look screenings air at 6.30pm on 5STAR and the show also streams on My5.
Read more Home and Away spoilers on our dedicated homepage
For further advice on postnatal depression, visit the NHS website (UK) or HealthDirect (Australia).
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