Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown) was recently stunned when she saw her brother James (Jason Callender) returning to Coronation Street – bringing baby Laila with him.

Dee-Dee gave birth to Laila earlier this year. During the traumatic delivery she struggled to get the maternity unit staff to take her concerns seriously and eventually the baby had to have an emergency delivery. Dee-Dee almost died after losing a lot of blood and had to have a hysterectomy, meaning she can’t have any more children.

She’d already decided to give the baby up for adoption because she felt she couldn’t cope with a baby who was the child of evil criminal Joel Deering (Calum Lill). Because James and his partner Danny were desperate to be parents, it seemed like the perfect solution to let them adopt the little girl who was named Laila.

Due to various circumstances, James wasn’t able to take Laila straight away, so she was cared for by the Bailey family. Dee-Dee couldn’t help but start to grow attached to her daughter although she resisted this. She was therefore heartbroken when James finally took the baby back to America to live with him and Danny.

Very soon he was back again, after he and Danny split up. Having nowhere else to go and needing help with Laila, James felt the only option was to return to his family.

For Dee-Dee this has meant once again she’s having to battle with her feelings as she has more contact with Laila. In upcoming scenes she offers to look after the baby so James can get some rest after a sleepless night. In tender scenes she can’t help but smile at her little girl.

Later, she has to take Laila for her vaccinations as James is away. Afterwards she tells Michael (Ryan Russell) that she found the whole experience very emotional.

She’s arranged to be interviewed by Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) on student radio about her experiences on the maternity ward and the wider issue of the racism that Black women often experience when giving birth. Feeling emotionally fragile, she confides in Daniel (Rob Mallard) that she’s not sure she can go through with it.

And when she and James argue over Laila, it seems that she’s struggling to remain objective about the situation and she’s finding it hard to deal with having her daughter close by every day.