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Reference > Erinsborough News > Mum’s The Word For Linda

Ramsay Street is getting ready for a baby.

In a Neighbours episode screening this week Kerry Bishop (Linda Hartley) announces to a stunned Joe (Mark Little) she is pregnant – but has to wait up half the night to tell him.

“It’s typical Mangel madness, with dogs barking and kids screaming, so Joe goes to the pub,” Linda says. “He comes home late and a bit drunk and doesn’t realise what I’m trying to tell him, so I put pillows up my jumper. Then he gets the picture.”

Linda had reservations when producers of Network Ten’s Neighbours told her of the pregnancy storyline. “I thought that Kerry is so domestic already and this would make her more so,” Linda says. “I came up with the idea that Kerry wouldn’t want to have a normal birth, so why not have an alternative one.”

With a worried Joe looking on, Kerry investigates water and home births. “She decides to have the baby in an inflated pool in the lounge room, with Sky and Toby watching,” Linda says. “Being a doctor, Bev (Shaunna O’Grady) is a bit concerned and talks to Joe. In the end Kerry compromises and agrees to have the baby in a birthing centre.”

The baby will be only the second in Neighbours’ long history. Des and Daphne’s Jamie was the first, in 1987.

This article originally appeared in TV Week magazine dated 26th May 1990 and was written by Chrissie Camp

Article submitted by Steve