Four women attend the Parentcraft ante-natal clinic run by midwife Vicky, herself pregnant. Half of an arranged marriage first time mother Yasmin is slightly irritated by loved-up husband Dev's over-attentive attitude. Businesswoman Roanna Wilson is in dispute with ex-husband Ray over their divorce settlement but happy with much younger lover and baby's father Simon whilst teaching assistant Kim Hall lives with her partner Susie and Susie's recalcitrant son Jude, Susie's ex-husband Neil being Kim's sperm donor though he also seems to want a relationship with her. Following two miscarriages, leading to her adopting, Diane Manning is thrilled when her scan reveals twins but shocked to find that unemployed husband Rick, in desperation, has robbed a bank and been forced to run. Schoolgirl Rosie Hutchinson, one of Kim's pupils, tries to keep her pregnancy secret from her father but has to dash to the clinic when her waters break with Vicky and Kim delivering her baby daughter.

Diane struggles to come to terms with what Rick has done for her, prompting her to turn to Roanna. The Police turn up at Jasmin and Dev's, were Rick is in hiding. He soon realises he will have to give himself up. Kim feels more responsible for Rosie, after her Dad's accident.

Roanna's ex-husband cancels all her credit cards, putting her and Simon's financial future under strain. Simon seems reluctant, when she suggests they ask his parents for help. A unwelcome visitor, makes Jasmine question her due date. Social services threaten to put Rosie in a mother and baby hostel, with her Dad still in hospital.

Kim, Rosie and baby Dinah are staying at Neil’s flat where Kim and Neil find it hard to ignore their feelings for each other. Rosie receives a shock after she visits her dad in hospital to inform him that he’s a grandad. Vicky issues Dr Bellingham with an ultimatum. Jasmin is upset after she’s told they might have to induce her labour.

When Dr Bellingham induces Jas, she is furious and things go from bad to worse when she finds out that Jack is still in the hospital. Vicky and Dr Bellingham's relationship accidentally becomes public knowledge. Roanna and Simon move into her parents house. Kim tries to mend her fractured family. Hope is taken off the ventilator, with everyone hoping she will be able to breathe on her own.

Dr. Bellingham has to confront his feelings for Vicky, when she has twinge in her abdomen. Kim and Susie struggle to make their relationship work, with living arrangements just adding to the complications. Simon throws a surprise party for Roanna. Jasmin and Dev find themselves making mistakes as sleep deprivation takes over. Diane and Rick prepare to take baby Hope, home.

As Kay Mellor's drama returns, Kim is struggling to be the perfect mum and her relationship with Neil is in jeopardy. As she prepares to see her ex Susie for the first time since they split, Kim is shocked to discover Neil's been keeping things from her. Meanwhile, a hospital visit reveals devastating news for Jasmin and Dev. When surrogate Shelly comes in for a routine check-up, her mum Maxine makes a surprise discovery.

After walking away from her high-flying career, Roanna is struggling to find a new job, so she reluctantly turns to ex-husband Ray for help. Meanwhile, Rick's release date is finally here so an anxious Diane prepares to welcome him home, and Vicky tries to juggle baby Ben with her full time job. However, when she gets caught up in work, things goes terribly wrong, with disastrous consequences. Elsewhere, Jasmin and Dev have to make the biggest decision of their lives.

Shelly goes into labour and finds herself faced with the reality of what she has signed up for and Rick offers to hold the fort while Diane takes Hope to her assessment, but things go terribly wrong when Rick is left on his own with a house full of babies. Meanwhile, an anxious Jasmin and Dev head to the hospital to find out if the laser procedure has worked, but Jasmin hasn't felt any movement from the twins for the past few days - will there still be two heartbeats?

Maxine stuns Shelly by revealing that she is the mother of the abandoned baby, conceived on a one night stand whilst husband Micky was away working. She initially tries to swap the child for Seb, the baby Shelly was carrying for Andrew and Nathan but eventually admits the deception though she has to explain the baby's presence to Micky. Vicky is suspended pending a coroner's hearing whilst Roanna confesses to Kim that she is working with ex-husband Ray and how she once had an affair with Simon's father Jonathan before realizing that he was married to Emma. With Simon seeing an old flame Roanna finds herself again falling for Ray but they are caught in bed by their daughter Katie, who tells Simon.

Supported by her colleague Geraldine and some of the other mothers Vicky attends her tribunal, where she is exonerated and Diane also faces a social services panel, who reinstate her as a child minder - but with a condition. Roanna and Ray catch up with Katie but not only does it come to light that Roanna has been seeing her ex-husband behind Simon's back but the long ago affair with Jonathan is also revealed. Thus Roanna misses Vicky's victory party and prepares to face life as a single parent - with worse to follow - when Simon departs for a new job abroad. Vicky, however, has a welcome visitor.

Roanna returns to Ray, having run over Jonathan, whom she visits in hospital, and learns that he may be permanently disabled. She is unsure if she acted deliberately. At the hospital she runs into Jasmin and Dev, who have had to interrupt baby Amber's naming ceremony when Vicky fears for the twins. However Vicky delivers them safely as well as giving her answer to a proposition by Chris, father of her child. As a result there is a new venue for the naming ceremony, the hospital, attended by the other mothers and their partners, who have plans for a collective future. Returning home Roanna gets a shock, as do Andrew and Nathan.