Emma Willis: Delivering Babies in 2020: Third season of award-winning series follows mums giving birth during coronavirus pandemic

It’s been praised by viewers and critics alike, and spawned two spin-offs - Emma Willis: Meet The Babies and Emma Willis: Special Births.

And the wait for series 3 of the award-winning show is over, as Emma Willis: Delivering Babies in 2020 arrives.

This time, things are ever so slightly different as the TV presenter follows families preparing to give birth in the midst of the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic - with their birthing plans thrown up in the air by the UK lockdown. 

From the release date and the trailer to what we can expect from the series, here’s everything we know about Emma Willis: Delivering Babies season 3.

What will happen in Emma Willis: Delivering Babies in 2020?

This new series will feel different as camera crews won't be filming behind-the-scenes at the Princess Alexandra Hospital where the first two seasons were filmed, due to coronavirus restrictions. Instead, all the births were shot by the families themselves. 

Emma Willis: Delivering Babies in 2020 will follow Emma - now a fully qualified Maternity Care Assistant - as she tells the stories of families whose birthing plans have been thrown up in the air by lockdown in the UK this year. 

During this time, Emma will be helping parents-to-be across the country as they prepare to welcome their baby into the world in this ‘new normal’. 

With all the births self-shot, it’s a unique and intimate insight into what it means to bring new life into a world that's been turned upside-down. 

The series will follow these families in the run-up to their births and when they return home - with Emma on hand to offer support and guidance on everything from breastfeeding to sleep routines and keeping a healthy mindset.

Of filming the series, Emma said: "It’s obviously been extremely challenging to make any TV so far this year, let alone a show based in a hospital, so I'm really pleased that we've still been able to check in with a number of families for this latest show. 

"I'm obviously gutted not to be alongside the fantastic team at the Princess Alexandra Hospital this year, but I've been keeping in touch with them through lockdown and hope to be working back on the wards one day soon.

"I think my key take-out for this series is that life goes on and babies are still going to be born. There's lots of devastation and sadness for everyone to deal with right now, but there's still pockets of hope and joy happening all across the world and we have the chance to witness a small slice of that in our new series."

What happened in the first two seasons of Emma Willis: Delivering Babies?

Series 1 of Emma Willis: Delivering Babies saw the former Big Brother host train for three months to become a Maternity Care Assistant in the busy maternity ward at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex.

Emma worked four shifts a week, day and night, alongside the midwifery team, helping to deliver babies. She cleaned beds, checked on babies, took mums’ blood pressure and offered support to new and expectant parents, discovering first-hand what makes midwifery one of the toughest, but most rewarding careers you can have.

The series was W's most-watched series of 2018, with almost a million people tuning into the premiere episode and the show subsequently won Best Popular Factual Programme at the Broadcast Digital Awards.

In series 2, Emma returned to the Princess Alexandra Hospital to continue her training as a fully-qualified Maternity Care Assistant - but the stakes were even higher the second time around. If she successfully completed her training and became a fully-qualified MCA, she'd be able to work at any hospital in the country.

Emma was inevitably handed a lot more responsibility and was asked to become a lot more independent. She also needed to be comfortable assisting in emergency situations including, at times, being the only MCA in theatre during caesarean sections. Emma also worked on the hospital’s Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit, which cares for critically ill babies.

Watch Emma Willis: Delivering Babies in 2020 if you liked...

One Born Every Minute, Teen Mom UK, 24 Hours in A&E, Call The Midwife, Maternity Ward.