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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Royals being put to sleep to give birth? *MNHQ edited the title for some sort of clarity*

297 replies

Butterandsugar · 13/03/2018 12:44

Posting in here for traffic, and also in case my lack of experience is at play here.

I have just been advised that when the royal family are due to deliver their babies they are put to sleep and someone else does the "work" for them because it is deemed too traumatic an experience.

Note, apparently this isn't a long winded and not really accurate attempt at saying they have caesarians.

I have scoffed at this, but an being told that this truly is the case. AIBU to not see how this is physically possible? And why on earth something like giving birth is deemed below the royals if so?

OP posts:
JessieMcJessie · 15/03/2018 08:50

What are you talking about cucaracha? It’s well documented that she suffers from HG to the extent that she has had to be hospitalised. The public events are in later pregnancy when the HG has diminished.

minifingerz · 15/03/2018 08:54

“Ergot was also used in bygone years for childbirth.“

It was used after birth to stop bleeding.

It’s still used today - ergometrine is combined with syntocinon to make a drug call syntometrine. NICE recommend syntocinon alone for third stage. I think some hospitals still using syntometrine because it may be better at preventing PPH.

Decisionsohdecisions · 15/03/2018 08:59

Oh come on please don’t feel sorry for Kate. If you are a women in developing country you have hg and you hope not to die drom dehydration.
If you are on minimum to average wage in the uk and you have hg then the prospects are better but still not great. You can drag yourself into work or face poverty on statutory sick pay.
If you are kate Dutches of Cornwall you take a few months off visiting charities and accepting flowers from cute small children.
You relax knowing your team of obstetricians, paediatricians, midwives anaesthetists etc etc are having monthly meetings planning your birth. No stretched nhs care for your little darling.
All at the cost of the tax payer. The same tax payers that might be pregnant women who can’t take a day off sick. The same women facing possibly unsafe maternity care and injuries to them and their baby because of staffing.
Appalling.
But really don’t loose any sleep or feel sorry for kate with her HG.

cucaracha · 15/03/2018 09:18

It’s well documented that she suffers from HG to the extent that she has had to be hospitalised.

It doesn't mean she was "suffering", of course the mother of the future king of England would have been given extra care, whilst other mums are just being ignored, don't be daft!
I sympathise with her, and frankly wouldn't have expected her to go in the public eye with simple morning sickness, not when cameras from around the world are fixed on her, but let's not pretend she was "suffering" so bad.

It doesn't highlight the issue, it makes people believe HG is a mild problem and pregnant women are not treated seriously.

Eltonjohnssyrup · 15/03/2018 09:33

It doesn't highlight the issue, it makes people believe HG is a mild problem and pregnant women are not treated seriously.

Hang on, you’ve just dismissed her HG as ‘morning sickness’ then you’re complaining other people trivialise HG? That’s a stunning lack of self awareness right there.

As far as I’m aware it doesn’t matter if you are a pauper or the Queen, there isn’t much you can do for HG other than treat dehydration. So she would physically have suffered just as much as anybody else even if she didn’t have to worry about childcare or housework.

Plus it wasn’t like she was just bunking off boring ribbon cutting. She missed her son’s first day at school.

MrsHathaway · 15/03/2018 09:51

Yes, I think that it gave the media a chance to say "morning sickness isn't just feeling a bit green first thing; it can be as extreme as HG where even someone who could legitimately do absolutely nothing all day and be waited on hand and foot ends up on a drip in hospital".

Eltonjohnssyrup · 15/03/2018 09:55

I think they did though. I’d been pregnant myself when she had first baby and I’d never heard of HG until then and all I do know has been sparked by coverage due to that. And I know that it’s really serious and unpleasant. I remember at the time that coverage went to great pains to point out she wasn’t just a bit queasy.

MrsHathaway · 15/03/2018 09:59

Sorry, yes, that's what I meant.

There are a million and one health conditions and it takes a prominent example to give the media the opportunity to say " has and here's a bunch more information about it".

cucaracha · 15/03/2018 10:11

you’ve just dismissed her HG as ‘morning sickness’ then you’re complaining other people trivialise HG?

No, I questioned the fact that she had HG in the first place, not that her HG was nothing if she had it really.

It makes it look like any women with HG (or even morning sickness!) just need a few days of rest before getting on with it. Not in the Real World I am afraid!

Topseyt · 15/03/2018 11:51

Kate is Duchess of Cambridge, not Cornwall.

Camilla is Duchess of Cornwall. She is rather beyond child bearing age.

cucaracha · 15/03/2018 11:59

True enough, but as these titles don't actually mean anything, it doesn't really make much difference Grin

JessieMcJessie · 15/03/2018 12:36

Why don’t you believe she had HG cucaracha? Reckon she just couldn’t be arsed taking George to his first day at school? Hmm

CountessOfStrathearn · 15/03/2018 14:06

"All at the cost of the tax payer."

A fitting thread given my username, but the tax payer doesn't pay directly for them. (It does for security etc.)

Kate and William (and Harry and soon to be Meghan) are funded by the Duchy of Cornwall, not by the Civil List. William and Harry are also independently wealthy following their inheritance of Diana's estate.

There's no reason to lie about Kate having had HG, which did apparently lead her to be hospitalised on at least one occasion. Thankfully for her (and not for me), it seems to resolve in the 2nd trimester and then she 'appears' again in the public eye.

IAmMatty · 15/03/2018 14:10

MIL was put under having her first child - in 1971! Shock

cucaracha · 15/03/2018 14:18

Why don’t you believe she had HG cucaracha?
I don't know, I only read it in the Daily Mail then saw photos of her at public engagements a few days later, so it didn't seem that horrendous to me. She might have had, but in her position, it could have just been morning sickness and she was rightly so hiding until she felt better.

There might have been an official message from the Palace, I honestly haven't looked for it

Decisionsohdecisions · 15/03/2018 14:24

Countess Well whoever pays they certainly get a lot funded by the tax payer. Why don’t they pay for their own security if they can afford their own healthcare?
Why do they need several homes and to spend several million pounds of tax payers money on renovating their apartment in Kensington palace?
Meanwhile the victims of Grenfell tower......
Furthermore if Kate had humility, empathy and related in anyway to the women and children of this country she would be saying two of my three midwives, six of my eight consultants etc etc go and help women who need you.

PerfectlyDone · 15/03/2018 16:12

There is a vast difference between 'twilight' sleep (achieved with really rather archaic meds), sedation, anaesthetic, amnesia following a traumatic birth, with or without drugs.

Lets not bundle it all together.

Personally, I don't really care how anybody delivers as long as they felt in control and had a positive experience.

TriHard27 · 15/03/2018 16:22

I would definitely have opted for this if it had been an option when I had my two. Grin

mathanxiety · 15/03/2018 16:48

Decisionsohdecisions, you can still feel sorry for another woman, even though she has access to more care than women in places where medical care is non-existent.

Even the NHS on a bad day is hundreds of times better than the care millions of women receive in many parts of the world. Should we beat the NHS patients about the ears with a chorus of 'You don't know how good you have it'?

I think it's heartless to withhold sympathy from any woman.

It's also a waste of energy - the problems women elsewhere are suffering won't be alleviated by scorn towards others.

JessieMcJessie · 15/03/2018 16:51

cucaracha you don’t remember when she was hospitalised when pregnant with George and it was front page news because an australian radio station played a cruel prank on a nurse in the hospital by pretending to call from Buckingham Palace and got her to give out personal information on air. The nurse very tragically committed suicide shortly afterwards.

Surprised that would have passed you by.

mathanxiety · 15/03/2018 17:07

if Kate had humility, empathy and related in anyway to the women and children of this country she would be saying two of my three midwives, six of my eight consultants etc etc go and help women who need you.

What a silly idea.

The consultants are not 'hers'.

They work in St Mary's Hospital. They do Kate one morning and on to their next patients over lunch and then on to a few more in the afternoon. They can't rock up to some other hospital and volunteer their services Hmm.

The problem is not that the well-off have excellent healthcare. The problem is that those relying on the NHS do not. Taking healthcare from the well-off does not mean redistribution will occur.

I delivered five times in the US, three times with private medical insurance and twice with state 'Kidcare' (Medicaid) paying for ante natal and delivery care, hospital charges and anesthetist care. I had appointments with my personal doctor or midwife for all my prenatal appointments, who were also there for delivery, private rooms with ensuite after delivery all five times, excellent nursing care, hospital paeditrician care for the babies, and appointments with a dietician to help me with gestational diabetes with Kidcare. I delivered in hospitals that catered for both private and state patients and nobody delivering care was aware of the financial status of any of the patients. There were no wards, no showers or toilets down the corridor, no putting up with loud and rude families of other patients while labouring and recovering and getting breastfeeding established.

mathanxiety · 15/03/2018 17:11

And unlike Kate, the consultants have bills to pay, children to educate, and rely on their income from working at St Mary's.

cucaracha · 15/03/2018 17:19

you don’t remember when she was hospitalised when pregnant with George

I didn't remember until you mentioned it, but yes I do, what a bizarre story that was.
Anyway, her being in hospital doesn't mean that she had HG, that's my point! of course the mother of the future King of England would have had special extra private care, and could very well have been admitted even if the rest of us would have been told to get on with it. To be fair to her, she might not even have liked the extra fuss, but it's part of the deal.

cucaracha · 15/03/2018 17:26

The consultants are not 'hers'.
Don't be silly, of course at least one will be available 24/7, could they risk the adverse publicity?

Speaking of the UK, I remember the stories about patients struggling with a hospital when they ended up there at the same time than Beyonce! Grin

The issue with the royal family fortune is not that they are well off as such, it's that their fortune comes from the tax payer. That's the joke here.

Eltonjohnssyrup · 15/03/2018 17:29

Yes, and all her pregnancies have been announced well before the 12 week mark because she’s had HG and they’ve had to explain why she stopped doing engagements for ages. And with George because she was hospitalised early on and they knew it would leak. And it was weeks if not months she was laid up. And she was hospitalised. So not just a few days