FOR THOSE not in the loop this is what happened: Womack’s character Ronnie Branning loses her baby son to cot death.

In her distress she swaps him for the new-born child of neighbours Kat and Alfie Moon.

Of course none of this can convey the sheer horror of the distraught Ronnie, wandering Albert Square with the body of her dead baby or, indeed, the raw grief of Kat Moon as she carries what she believes is the coffin containing her baby, Tommy, to his funeral.

Since these highly-charged episodes were screened, with the funeral to come, complaints have soared and Womack resigned after apparently ‘making it clear’ to her bosses she thought the plot was wrong.

“I am a mother first, an actress second,” she is reported to have said.

Founder of the influential Mumsnet parents’ group Justine Roberts has written to BBC chief Mark Thompson, telling him: “For many, EastEnders might be their first or closest experience of a newly bereaved mother’s reaction and they may treat baby snatching as a typical desire, nothing could be further from the truth.”

Roberts has complained to the watchdog Ofcom and she will not be the last.

The BBC message boards have been flooded with furious complaint. “They have made a joke out of the story and made us all look stupid and mad at the same time,” says Menu22.

Another commentator, Eefan, said: “I couldn’t watch all of it. I felt sick. I can’t believe EE has come up with this storyline.

“Portraying a cot death is one thing but twisting it with a sensationalist baby swap plot is a step too far.

“EE has made a mockery of such a sensitive issue and has turned it into a ratings chasing storyline.”

Broadcaster Anne Diamond, who lost her own son, Sebastian, to cot death 20 years ago has also blasted the BBC.

Sebastian’s funeral took place at All Saints and St Marks near West Parley not far from the home of Anne’s parents and Diamond, a former Daily Echo reporter, was horrified by the EastEnders’ storyline.

“I was shocked to find cot death itself is no longer dramatic enough for today’s screenwriters,” she observes.

“It wasn’t enough that poor Ronnie Branning should lose her newborn son. She had to lose her senses, too, and swap her dead baby for Kat Moon's healthy son.

“If I had known that was what they were planning, I would have raised the roof.”

As an award-winning campaigner to reduce cot death – her landmark Back To Sleep Campaign has saved the lives of thousands of children, reducing deaths from 2,000 a year to around 300 -- Diamond’s views have heaped further embarrassment on the BBC. They have also infuriated the leading cot death charity the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, who the BBC claimed to have consulted about the storyline.

However, in a statement posted on its website, FSID, whose 40th anniversary patron is Anne Diamond, said: “FSID had no involvement in the planning or adoption of the specific ‘baby-swap’ plotline.

“The behaviour and actions of Ronnie Mitchell are in no way ‘endorsed’ by FSID as a typical, or even likely, reaction of a bereaved parent.”

A young Bournemouth mum who asked not to be named but is expecting her second child in the next few months summed it up.

She said: “I’ve no problem with them tackling this issue but the way they have done it is ridiculous and so wide of the mark.

“If you lost your baby the last thing you’d want is someone else’s. You’d want your own.

“How can they get it so wrong?”