We Can't Resist A Royal Baby

With the Cambridges’ third child due any day now, Ingrid Seward explores our fascination with the younger members of the royal family.

The birth of a baby in the royal family has long been a cause for celebration, the child welcomed with great excitement by a waiting world. For many of us, the tiny infant signifies hope for the future, not just for the royal family but also for the nation; a symbol of continuity and a regal bulwark against changing social mores. Every detail of their development is pored over. The first tooth, the first step, the first word. The colour of the royal offspring’s hair and eyes is discussed, clothes studied and copied. Even the names of the nannies make the news.

“If you are going to have a monarchy, you have got to have a family – and the family has got to be in the public eye,” is how Prince Philip rightly sees it.

No one was more in the public eye than the infant Prince George, who came into the world at 4.24pm on 22 July 2013. Forty minutes before the Cancer sign turned to Leo, according to astrologers (every detail counts!). The following evening, the prince was carried out of St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, in his mother’s arms to confront the biggest media circus in royal history.

Now the world awaits the birth of the Duchess of Cambridge’s third child, due this month. Since suffering from an extreme form of morning sickness known as Hyperemesis Gravidarum, her antenatal health has been closely monitored at home at Kensington Palace. For all three pregnancies, there has been a mobile operating theatre at the Palace, but Kate will almost certainly give birth at St Mary’s again since she knows the hospital and staff so well by now.