Marsh raises premature birth awareness

Coronation Street star Kym Marsh has discussed her decision to conduct an investigation into premature births for ITV's Tonight programme.

The 33-year-old actress, best known for her role as Weatherfield's Michelle Connor, will be seen interviewing women who have given birth too soon on the current affairs programme next week.

Marsh and her partner Jamie Lomas were hit by tragedy in February when they lost their first child Archie Jay moments after he was born 18 weeks premature.

Speaking about her documentary on This Morning, Marsh explained: "I did have to think about it for a long time, because I obviously haven't really divulged too much about what happened to me, and I don't intend to do that because that's something that is still very, very painful for me to talk about.

"However, [I agreed] when I was shown the statistics and the fact that this was on the increase, and also the fact that I've had a premature baby before - my son who's almost 15 years old now was born at 33 weeks. And I want to know why [it] happened to me, and I want to know what might happen in the future."

On one area where there is room for improvement, she commented: "It's very difficult and you're just left with this feeling, and there kind of wasn't an awful lot of support afterwards so you just leave with leaflets if you need some counselling.

"I think anybody that has a premature baby, whether they survive and/or living with a disability or whether you do lose your baby, I think it's important that you have after-care and support. It is a very traumatic thing to have to go through."

Marsh, who was named 'Celebrity Mum Of The Year' earlier this week, added that filming the documentary was a "big" personal comfort to her.

Kym Marsh - Born Too Soon: Tonight airs on Monday at 8pm on ITV1.