Welcoming a new baby into the family is always a cause for celebration — especially when that family happens to be royalty. In the past decade, we’ve followed four royal births in the British royal family — George, Charlotte, and Louis from Prince William and Kate Middleton, and Archie from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Although there’s always a huge amount of fanfare, press, and gossip when a new royal birth takes place, the modern celebrations are nowhere near as outrageous as those the royal mothers of yore had to put up with.
In fact, giving birth as a royal back in the day seemed like a downright heinous experience. And if royal birth was this rough, we cannot imagine what it was like giving birth as a commoner.
Check out the facts below about what it was like for royal women to give birth back in the day. They were poked, prodded, gawked at, and then ignored for weeks on end. It wasn’t what anyone would necessarily call “pleasant.” Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton are probably counting their blessings that they don’t have to put up with the nonsense that their foremothers had to. We know we certainly would be.
1. Painkillers weren’t a thing until Queen Victoria said so.
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Because the Bible explicitly states that childbirth will be painful thanks to Eve’s wrongdoings (“To the woman God said: ‘In pain you will give birth to children'”), women suffered through their deliveries without any anesthetic. According to the Christian religion, this severe pain was simply part of being a woman.
By her eighth pregnancy, though, England’s Queen Victoria decided enough was enough. She brought in doctor John Snow (of Yorkshire, not Winterfell) who pioneered the use of chloroform as an anesthetic. Her desire to be medicated during her birthing was highly criticized by the public, but once other women began to take Victoria’s advice, chloroform (and later, ether) became commonplace during labor and delivery.
“Oh, that blessed chloroform,” Victoria reportedly wrote after Prince Leopold’s birth in 1853, “soothing and delightful beyond measure.”
She used Dr. Snow’s chloroform again during her final delivery of Princess Beatrice in 1857.
2. Midwives were reserved for the rich.
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Today, pregnant women often rely on midwives and OBGYN doctors to walk them through pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Historically, though, the midwives who knew the ins and outs of pregnancy only tended to the wealthy. Midwives often had to take an oath and swear they would not keep anything from the mother’s royal birth (such as the umbilical cord or placenta) that she could potentially use in witchcraft.
According to The Tudor Society, historians don’t know much about what pregnancy and birth was like among the lower classes due to the fact that records were rarely kept. Furthermore, commoner births were often private affairs, much unlike royal births as you’ll learn below.
3. Everyone was present for the birth.
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In the 17th century and beyond, duchesses, dukes, princesses, and princes would flood into the birthing room upon catching wind that the queen had begun her contractions. According to History.com, the tradition of having a large audience present during a royal birth was implemented to ensure that there could be no sneaky switches if the queen gave birth to a girl. The audience also ensured that everyone knew whether or not the baby was alive when it was born.
Marie Antoinette’s first birth was reportedly so crowded that when she finally gave birth to her baby girl the overwhelming reaction and lack of fresh air caused her to have a seizure and faint.
No one even noticed she was out cold for the first few minutes.
In fact, it wasn’t until Queen Elizabeth I’s birth that the tradition of being born in a public setting was broken. Elizabeth was born in her maternal grandparents’ home rather than a public palace; however, the Home Secretary was still present during her and Princess Margaret’s births.
4. The father often wasn’t present.
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Despite the rest of the palace being present for the royal birth, the father was usually elsewhere during his child’s arrival. This was especially true if the father was the king of a nation! In fact, the idea of monarchs and royal fathers being present for their child’s birth is so new that Prince Phillip was not even present for the birth of Prince Charles.
While Queen Elizabeth was in labor, a nervous Phillip was out playing squash. Huh. But when the queen was about to give birth to their fourth son, Prince Edward, she insisted Prince Phillip be there, and he was — making him the first royal father in modern history to actually witness the birth of his child!
5. The baby’s sex was thought to be influenced by rituals.
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Back in the early days of giving birth to monarchs, it was believed that a child remained sexless up until it exited the womb. Therefore, rituals, prayers, and divine intervention could have been used to influence a child’s sex.
Joint Chief Curator of the 2013 Secrets of the Royal Bedchamber exhibition at Hampton Court Palace Tracy Borman told The Guardian in 2013, “In those days people believed that a child’s sex was not determined until the moment it was born, so they thought they could influence the baby’s gender during the pregnancy.”
In fact, the act of “lying-in” a darkened chamber was thought to bring about a male heir, which brings us to…
6. They believed the mother could influence the baby with her thoughts.
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Those in medieval England believed that a pregnant woman could actually alter her baby’s appearance and future beliefs with her own thoughts and visions. According to The Royal Doctors, 1485-1714: Medical Personnel at the Tudor and Stuart Courts, midwives and doctors often advised expecting mothers to drink potions to ward off evil and frightening thoughts so as not to disturb the growing baby.
“One such concoction combined two drams of mastic and frankincense, plus half a scruple each of dragon’s blood (resin from the dracaena), myrtles, bolearmoniak, and Hermes berries, ground together in chicken broth,” the text reads. Yuck.
7. Royal mothers-to-be were kept in dark, womb-like chambers.
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Before giving birth, royal Tudor women would be advised to “take her chambers” in the weeks or days leading up to the birth. She would become totally isolated from the world, and would only be allowed to interact with a select few women called “God’s siblings.” or “God’s sibs” for short. (This is where our modern word “gossip” comes from, BTW.) Tapestries were hung over the windows in order to create a womb-like space. As The Tudor Society states, it was believed that too much sunlight could damage an expectant mother’s eyes.
8. No matter the season, a mother-to-be had to sit by a roaring fire.
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While waiting for the arrival of her baby within her womb-like chambers, the pregnant royal would also have to withstand a roaring fire that was kept in the hearth day and night, no matter the season. Needless to say, these chambers were hot, stuffy, and the royal mother probably would have felt gross during her time within them.
At least the floors were covered with nicely scented herbs that kept the room as fresh-smelling as possible…
9. Royals were expected to give birth on a special day bed.
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In the dark chambers, two beds were made available during a British royal birth: one was a regular bed in which she spent most of her time in the weeks leading up to the birth, and the second was a unique day bed that was brought into the birthing chambers specifically for the woman to give birth on. It’s unclear why there needed to be separate beds for sleeping and birthing, but that was just how the royal cookie crumbled.
10. Holistic remedies supposedly helped ease labor pains.
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When the contractions started and the labor pains began to set in, midwives would apply rose oil to a the woman’s sides, mix a potion of sugar and vinegar for the mother to drink, and would even apply eagle dung poultices to specific areas where pains were felt.
Furthermore, gemstones were apparently worn during labor to ease pains.
Some women opted to hold magnets in their hands for the same purpose. Those who had difficult births would be advised to wear a holy girdle made of silver to alleviate pain and help with the delivery process. TBH, wearing a girdle sounds like it would make things SO much worse.
11. When hospitals became a thing, the royals opted out.
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The first royal baby to be born in a hospital was Prince William in 1982. Yup. Up until then, every royal birth happened at home in their respective castles, palaces, or residencies. But Princess Diana, who often went against tradition, said she wanted to have her child in a hospital, so she did just that. She had William in a private wing at St. Mary’s Hospital.
Diana also requested to be induced because she reportedly couldn’t handle the pressure from the media any longer.
If only the royal mothers who came before her had had the same luxury…
12. New mothers were kept in bed for weeks after the royal birth.
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Marie Antoinette was resigned to spend the first 18 days of her daughter’s life in bed. And before she became Catherine the Great, Catherine II was actually imprisoned after giving birth to her son Paul in 1754. Russian Empress Elizabeth kept Catherine confined in two small rooms within the palace for months after her horrible birth, after which she was left shivering on the floor for hours before the midwife found her.
Yikes.
Margaret Beaufort, mother to England’s King Henry VII, set up strict rules for new royal mothers, one of which included them being left in their chambers for 40 days post-birth to ensure recovery. She would be attended to by female servants only, and on the 40th day, she would be “churched” so she could reenter royal society.
13. Royal mothers did not attend their child’s christening.
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Because medieval British mothers were expected to stay within the confines of their chambers for weeks after giving birth, this meant they could not attend the christening of their newborn — an event that the entire royal family attends today. The new mother would later go through her own christening of sorts when she was churched, meaning that a ceremony was held specifically for the mother, to cleanse her and ready her for normal life again.
14. Every royal birth is a hotbed for gossip.
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Meghan Markle was at the center of a media storm during her pregnancy. Many still believe that she was never pregnant to begin with. Yeah, we know — it’s nuts. But unfortunately, royal women have been dealing with this B.S. for centuries.
In the late 17th century, Mary of Modena, the second wife to King James II, suffered several miscarriages and remained childless for a longer time than anticipated. So, when she finally gave birth to James Francis Edward, a Catholic among Protestant England, many speculated that she was never pregnant at all. The rumor was started in order to discredit James as being the rightful heir to the throne, saying that he was actually someone else’s child, and was snuck into Mary’s bedchamber in a warming pan on the night of his “birth.”
It’s because of this theory that so many people began attending the births of royal heirs.
15. Depending on the time period, mothers and babies may have been kept separate.
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Noble women in the medieval era often left the child rearing to wet nurses, and opted not to breastfeed their babies themselves. Even though this was commonplace among the upper class, the act of leaving the breastfeeding to wet nurses was frowned upon by the church, who believed that if the Virgin Mary breastfed her child then all women should do the same.