Home and Away star Sophie Dillman discusses Ziggy's emotional baby storyline

 "I think it was really important."

Home and Away spoilers follow for UK viewers.

Home and Away star Sophie Dillman has spoken to  about Ziggy Astoni's emotional new storyline.

Next week's UK episodes explore Ziggy's struggles as a new mother, as she goes missing after several days of doubting herself.

Ziggy has struggled to bond with her newborn daughter and she starts to feel exhausted after so many night feeds.

Dean Thompson tries his best to provide reassurance and support to his partner, but he panics when he later discovers that Ziggy has gone AWOL.

Speaking to  about the scenes, Sophie explained: "I think it was really important to explore. I'm really glad that we got to see the full trajectory of Ziggy's pregnancy.

"We saw the nine months – we saw each trimester and what that brought. We then saw the birth, the aftermath and both sides of parenthood – the excitement, the fear and that sort of thing.

"Post-natal depression is really common and it's really sad that it's not spoken about more.

"It's also nice to see that Summer Bay is such a community and they all come together and help Ziggy and Dean in this storyline."

Sophie and her partner Patrick O'Connor, who plays Dean, both spoke to their real-life loved ones while exploring Ziggy's struggles.

She said: "We've got friends who've spoken about being affected by it. It needs to be spoken about more in greater detail. It felt like an honour to be able to do that on screen.

"My goal was to bring the most realistic version of that I could without personal experience and hopefully I did that.

"If we were staying in the show, it's definitely something that we would have loved to explore for even longer. From speaking to new parents, it's just such a whirlwind of nappies, tears, lack of sleep and everything in between.

The arrival of the baby is one of the last major milestones for Ziggy and Dean before they depart Home and Away. Their exit scenes have already aired in Australia, but they'll stick around on UK screens for the next few weeks.

Sophie added: "It was always unexpected that they took on the roles they did in the pregnancy – Dean was all for it, while Ziggy was unsure. It was a really interesting choice from the writers and we really enjoyed that.

"It was so much fun working with a baby on set – although it does make it tricky! You're so in the moment because you have to react to what the baby's giving you. You can't tell a baby what to do, so it made it really fun on set.

"Everyone loves a baby so everyone's happy! I had the best time."