royal mums

How the Queen and Princess Diana's experience as new mums was so similar

Both royal ladies were young mums

Parenting Editor
March 25, 2022

Did you know that Princess Diana became a mum to Prince William at the young age of 20?

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The late royal married the Queen's eldest son, Prince Charles, in July 1981 and less than a year later in, June 1982, William was born. Diana and Charles welcomed their second son Harry in September 1984, when Diana was 23, which by today's standards was a fairly young age to have two children.

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Interestingly, Diana's then mother-in-law, the Queen, was also a young mother. The monarch gave birth to her first baby, Prince Charles when she was 22 in November 1948, and her second child, Princess Anne, in August 1950 when she was 24 years.

We wonder if Her Majesty and Diana ever spoke of the fact they had this in common with each other; perhaps the Queen passed on advice about being a young mother? The upside of having children in one's twenties is all the energy you have to cope with those sleepless nights!

As for the arrivals of the Queen and Diana's firstborns, the stories are fascinating.

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Prince William was born at 9.03pm on 21 June 1982 in the private Lindo Wing of St.

Mary's hospital in London following a 16-hour labour. The birth was overseen by the Queen's own surgeon gynaecologist, George Pinker, who looked after the Princess throughout her pregnancy.

Town and Country magazine reported how Diana told her biographer, Andrew Morton: "William had to be induced because I couldn’t handle the press pressure any longer."

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It was a natural birth for the Princess, who actually delivered William in a standing position.

Natural childbirth activist and author Sheila Kitzinger previously wrote in The Mail how she advised the Lindo Wing on the preparations for the birth of Prince William.

Sheila wrote: "When she was pregnant with Prince William, I was asked to advise the private Lindo wing of St Mary's in Paddington, London, on what equipment it should provide so that she could give birth in an upright position.

"I said that Charles looked strong enough to hold her. And that is what happened. It was the first active royal birth — a complete contrast to the Queen's reflection that, with modern anaesthesia, birth had become 'a sleep and a forgetting'."

The Queen's birth of Prince Charles was quite different.

Charles was born via Caesarean section on the evening of 14 November 1948, in the Buhl Room at Buckingham Palace. According to Town and Country magazine, the room, which was ordinarily used as a guest room, was converted into a 'miniature hospital'.

As was the custom at the time, the monarch's husband, Prince Philip, was not in the room for his firstborn's arrival – following a labour of 30 hours. To pass the time, Philip is said to have played squash with his private secretary in the palace until he got news of his son's arrival.

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