After endless false starts and health scares, Steph and Max are expecting
All Steph has ever wanted in her marriage to Max has been to have a child of her own. After two years of wedded bliss, the happiest couple in Ramsay Street are finally about to get their wish granted when Steph (Carla Bonner) announces that she is pregnant with Max’s (Stephen Lovatt) child.
After years of being told by doctors they would never be able to have children, and then enduring the agony of trying for an IVF conception, Steph and Max had given up hope. But the couple are about to discover miracles do happen, in upcoming episodes of Neighbours. “Steph never, ever thought this day would happen,” Bonner says. “This is something both she and Max have wanted for so long. “They had resigned themselves to the fact their family would be Boyd (Kyal Marsh) and Summer (Marisa Siketa), and were happy with that. But when she gets the news she can have Max’s baby Steph is completely over the moon.”
Remembering all the past great expectations shattered, Steph decides to keep the good news quiet until there can be no doubt. But when she begins sneaking out to secret appointments, both Max and his interfering sister Izzy (Natalie Bassingthwaighte) fear the worst. Izzy is certain Max and Steph’s marriage is in trouble - and that Steph is off to see a secret lover, despite Max’s protests in her defence. He knows his wife is up to something and while he is sure she is not having an affair, he can’t work out what game she is playing.
When Steph leaves for another mystery appointment, she thinks no one has noticed - but is spotted at the hospital by Ramsay Street medico Dr Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher). Karl later tells Max that he saw Steph at the hospital and she looked worried. “Is her health okay?” Karl asks. “She hasn’t had bad news has she?” Max panics, believing that Steph’s cancer has returned and she has said nothing about it so as not to worry him. But if she is facing another battle for her life, Max is determined to be a part of it.
“Steph thinks that she is doing the right thing by just checking out her health on her own, but Erinsborough is not that big of a place and everyone knows something’s up” Bonner says with amusement. “When Max becomes scared, she realises that she has to come clean with what is up - but she remains cautious in case there is no baby”. When her scan results come back, Steph learns her pregnancy is well established and healthy, and that she and her husband are about to become parents at long last. “This is the news Steph has always wanted to hear, but gave up on a long time ago”, Bonner adds. “There is nothing that can change the situation now - the baby s healthy and this pregnancy is fine. What we are about to see is the way this pregnancy will begin to change Steph’s life in many different ways”.
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