Maternal tells the stories of Maryam, a Paediatric Registrar, Catherine, a General and Trauma Surgeon, and Helen, a Registrar in Acute Medicine, as they each attempt to balance their increasingly demanding jobs in post-pandemic frontline medicine with their lives as new mothers.
Helen is at couples therapy alone. She admits that she and Guy feel angry with each other most of the time. When she’s asked what Guy does with his anger, the question hangs. Maryam and Raz meanwhile attend a meeting with the Adoption Support team to discuss the arrival of Sami’s sister. Raz is keen for them to take her, but the meeting raises uncomfortable questions for Maryam about her mental health. With these and the forthcoming investigation on her mind, Maryam does her best to keep showing up at work and stay focused on her patients. One of these is Jakub, a regular in paediatrics who Maryam responds to with skill and care. But when Raz arrives with one of his students, a young man struggling with his mental health, Maryam feels the truth of her own situation begin to re-surface.
Desperate to chalk up surgical hours in advance of her interview for Consultant, Catherine finds herself signing paperwork that will allow Elis to stay with Lars and Brigitta in Sweden. Grateful for the help she’s getting with childcare, Catherine throws herself into work and brilliantly performs a gallbladder removal on a pregnant woman. But what happens next is something she’s neither professionally nor personally prepared for. Things come to a head for Catherine – and for Helen and Guy – when they go on a double date together, with Matt the anaesthetist as Catherine’s plus one. It’s clear that Catherine is intent on drowning out her feelings with several bottles of wine, but as the evening progresses, it is Guy who cuts a more alarming figure…
Maternal
Monday at 9.00pm on ITV.
Image: ©ITV Studios
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