The Birth of a Princess

A princess has been born and in this Royal mad household we are all very happy about it! (Eleanore met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last Easter - we're still basking in the glory..)
We don't know what the name of the new Royal will be yet, but people all over the world are busy thinking about what it should be. I'm just going to put it out there and say it might (i repeat might!) be: Charlotte Elizabeth Diana Eleanore Wales..

And well done to Kate for not only looking so darn good 10 hours after giving birth, but for actually walking outside in public 10 hours after giving birth. Some of us would only dream about doing this in our worst nightmare ever!! (Here's a hilarious rant on the ScaryMommy Blog that says it best.)

I must admit though, that if I was going home to Kensington Palace from the hospital then maybe I would be in kind of a hurry to get back there too. As it was, and I do like my house, I always managed to stay at least FOUR DAYS in hospital after the birth of my children. I think my record for staying in the hospital room after birth may even have been five days. I can't recall - it was all such a blur! Which is kind of the point.
My method for maximising my hospital stay (when thankfully there were no complications) was to
a) stay very quiet and hope the staff forgot I was there; and
b) undertake copious crying (on my part, not the babies, they were fine..) when going home was even lightly mentioned as a possibility by some hapless nurse who obviously had no children back home herself and didn't realise that I wasn't returning to Kensington Palace with multiple staff, private medical practitioners and roomfuls of cosmetics and designer gear.

But seriously, I breastfeed all of my babies, but I never found it easy to begin with. With each new baby I had to learn how to do it all over again. Then there was all the physical stuff going on (your body kind of turns in to a foreign object), the lack of sleep and the pressure to feed that baby meant it was kind of traumatic. Every time. (If I just whisper the words: N***** Shields were my salvation - you'll start to appreciate what was going on…) So for those reasons and no doubt many more I've blocked out, staying in hospital for more than 10 (or 24, or 48) hours was not a luxury. It was VITAL for getting proper care for myself and the baby and for having midwives and lactation consultants and obstetricians everywhere who oversaw, checked, advised and assisted.

So these services may not seem like luxuries to many of us, but they certainly are for the women of Nepal. It's hard to imagine the devastation brought about by the recent earthquake, let alone to imagine giving birth in the aftermath. But it's happening.

Source

Here's one way to give and to give generously with whatever you have to spare. Go to Baptist World Aid's website.

Because all babies are beautiful - and getting a happy and safe start in life, whether that's in a palace or in an earthquake zone, is something that touches all of our hearts.

What do you think the baby Princess will be called?