The Complicated Story Behind General Hospital's Serena Baldwin's Birth
"General Hospital" character Serena Baldwin (Carly Schroeder) was born to Dominique Stanton (Shell Danielson) and Scott Baldwin (Kin Shriner) in 1993. However, like everything else in the soap opera, Serena's birth was far more complex than anything you could expect. The reason Serena's parents got together in the first place was a convoluted one. Initially, Domonique and Scott hated one another. Together, along with Julia Barett, they founded a perfume brand called "Deception." However, Scott and Dominique were an extremely incompatible pair in business and were rarely seen getting along.
As you might have guessed from the mention of their shared daughter, the animosity between these two didn't last. Surprisingly, before their issues were even resolved, the two were wed in a shocking turn of events. After having too much to drink on a night out in Vegas, Dominique and Scott woke with fuzzy memories and were legally bound to each other by marriage. They immediately decided to get the marriage annulled. But the papers didn't come quickly enough. Amidst their lengthy processing time, the pair fell in love and decided to stay husband and wife.
Serena Baldwin was born via surrogate
In 1993, Dominique Stanton began to fall ill, and she was suddenly experiencing concerning symptoms. Sadly, doctors discovered that she was suffering from a deadly brain tumor. Dominique and Scott Baldwin were told she had less than a year before the brain tumor would take her life. This sudden reality was a shocking plot twist for "General Hospital" fans. Once this heartbreaking news broke, Scott planned the big, extravagant wedding that Dominique never had back in Vegas. All of her loved ones were there to celebrate her and say a devastating goodbye. Before she died, Dominique decided she wanted to have a child with Scott.
Given the state of her health, she could not carry the child herself. So, she and Scott fertilized an egg and had the child via a surrogate mother, Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring). In a sweet but heartbreaking moment, Dominique was lucky enough to hear the heartbeat of her and Scott's child. However, she sadly died before the baby girl was born. Coe and Scott decided to name the newborn Serena as a tribute to the home that Dominique grew up in called "Serenity."
Serena Baldwin was taken away from her father
Just as drama preceded Serena Baldwin's birth, it followed immediately after as well. Upon dying, Dominique Stanton left Serena and her father, Scott Baldwin, $100,000,000. While it was a generous display of love, this endowment set Scott into a panic, fearful that the mob was after him and his daughter's new fortune. Scott took Serena and headed north to hide in Canada. In 1997, it was revealed that Serena was missing, and Scott was sent into further panic.
Scott returned to Port Charles, originally suspecting that Lucy Coe had illegally attempted to take back the daughter she had given birth to. However, it turned out that this was not the case. Instead, Danielle Ashley (Renee Allman) and Rex Stanton (Wayne Northrop) were the ones who had taken away Serena. Rex even went as far as accusing Scott of being an unfit father and took over custody of Serena. Lucy then married Rex in order to watch over Serena while she was in his care. Although Serena's mother's death made her origin story far from usual, Lucy Coe gave Serena a morsel of normalcy, standing in as a mother figure throughout her life.