RON Rose begins his programme profile by pointing out he was born into a family of sisters and aunts.

Those circumstances, he believes, explain his fascination with writing women's roles in his plays and television dramas, whether in the darts comedy Double Top or this week's premiere at Hull Truck Theatre Company, Oh Baby!

"I am the token woman writer," jokes the South Yorkshireman. "But then I've always written about women, such as Love And Reason, the big series I did for the BBC about a woman becoming an MP.

"Coming from a family of four sisters and lots of aunts, I just find women more interesting than men. I've always been comfortable with women and being a writer at home, I'm used to doing the chores around the house.

"Besides, I'm a foot short, two stone too heavy, and I don't look at women and think I'm going to get laid tonight.

"Every morning I look at the mirror thinking 'Well, I wouldn't'!"

Oh Baby! is a comic drama that follows the highs and lows of life in a maternity ward. In a cast with multiple role playing - featuring York Theatre Royal favourite Martin Barrass - Ron presents the midwives, the expectant mothers and the men who put them there.

Not only the mums-to-be have a struggle on their hands; the midwives have their own battles, as they are on the move to a new high-in-the-sky maternity facility in a play with a political backdrop.

"A woman came up to John Hull Truck artistic director John Godber in a Chinese restaurant and said 'You ought to do a play about midwives'. It was around the time that Double Top was on at Hull Truck, so John rang the 'token woman writer' and said 'What about a play about midwives?'"

Ron immediately said 'yes'.

"So I met midwives, did research at Grimsby and Scunthorpe maternity units with Mary Swan, director of midwifery training, and then with two wonderful midwives in Hull, Jackie and Jan," Ron recalls.

"It was ever so moving because they were saying 'It's awesome every time we deliver a baby', yet they've done hundreds of births. I've never met a midwife who's cynical about the business of birth, though sometimes the circumstances the mothers are departing to are sorrowful. I take my hat off to them for the work they do."

Oh Baby!, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, running until August 2, at 8pm. Box office: 01482 323638.

Did you know?

In the 1960s Ron Rose swam for the York City Baths Club. In 1977, he worked on three productions - a pub show, an open-air production and a musical - at York Theatre Royal.

Updated: 12:07 Friday, July 18, 2003