Meghan's home birth shows she will be a thoroughly modern mum determined to go her own way
Still less than a year since she married into the Royal Family, yet we have come to expect the unexpected from the Duchess of Sussex. So the Mail’s revelation that she is considering a home birth for her first child should surely not be a surprise.
What is clear, however, is that it is a further and highly significant step in showing Meghan’s insistence on doing things her own way at the expense of convention, never mind royal tradition.
It is decades since a royal mother last gave birth at home rather than in hospital. But let’s be absolutely clear, if Meghan does go ahead and give birth at home later this month, this will be unlike any normal home birth.
She will be attended by a full complement of medical experts and a helicopter will be on standby to whisk her to hospital should an emergency develop. Frogmore Cottage, her and Harry’s newly-renovated home on the Windsor estate, will be prepared for every eventuality.
It should be pointed out that though Meghan is keen to have a home birth – and follow in the footsteps of the Queen who gave birth to all her four children at either Buckingham Palace or Clarence House – no final decision has been taken.
And according to insiders when that decision is taken, it will be a medical one. ‘The duchess will accept what is best for both and for her unborn child,’ said a source. Nevertheless the fact she is even considering a home birth demonstrates yet again how the American-born duchess feels able to challenge accepted royal norms.
In many ways her reluctance to follow the example of her sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge who gave birth to all three of her children at the private Lindo wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington is commendable.
Kate merely followed the example of Prince William’s mother, Princess Diana whose sons were both born at the Lindo. And Diana followed the lead of Princess Anne, the mother of the Queen’s eldest grandchildren, Peter and Zara, who were also born at St Mary’s.
Ruling out the Lindo was Meghan’s first decision. The move to Windsor and the fact that their new home was ready before the birth due date was an enormous help.
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My view: Meghan is entitled to choose wherever she wants to have her baby, but why is she avoiding the hospital? and what has she got to hide.?