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Zara Tindall carrying son Lucas © Getty

How Zara Tindall brought back this royal birthing tradition

Zara is married to former England rugby player Mike Tindall

Sophie Hamilton
Parenting Editor
Updated: April 4, 2024
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Zara and Mike Tindall are the proud parents to Mia, ten, Lena, five, and Lucas, who has just turned three. 

Their youngest child's birth was quite a dramatic occasion, as Lucas was born on the bathroom floor of the family's Gatcombe Park house in March 2021.

And interestingly, Zara was the first royal woman in over 50 years to welcome a child at home rather than in hospital.

The last regal mum to do so before her was the late Queen's sister, Princess Margaret. She gave birth to her daughter, Lady Sarah, at home in Kensington Palace in 1964.

Queen Elizabeth II also had her four children at home in Buckingham Palace and Clarence House.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Rugb‪y podcast, proud father Mike said: "Sunday got even better because a little baby boy arrived at my house," adding how little Lucas, "Arrived very quickly. Didn’t make it to hospital. On the bathroom floor."

He told listeners: "So yeah, it was running to the gym, get a mat, get into the bathroom, get the mat on the floor, towels down, brace, brace, brace."

Lucas Tindall sits on Mike Tindall's shoulders© David Hartley/Shutterstock
Lucas is his father Mike's mini-me

Mike also added how his wife’s friend Dolly, who was also at the birth of their two daughters, Mia and Lena, was present: "She was there and recognised that we wouldn’t have got to hospital in time."

He added: "Fortunately the midwife who was going to meet us at the hospital wasn’t that far away so she drove up just as we had assumed the posit (position) and the second midwife arrived just after the head had arrived."

Lucas, Mia and Lena at 2022 Festival Of British Eventing© Getty
Mia and Lena dote on their little brother, Lucas

Mike said that their daughters were elsewhere for the day because Zara had been having contractions through the night.

He also spoke of the pros of having a home birth, revealing: "The best thing about being at home, the best thing was, as soon as he’s wrapped up, he’s skin on skin, straight downstairs. TV room. Golf on. This is what we’re doing."

Zara's home birth takes us back to when the late Queen Elizabeth II welcomed her children.

The Queen cradling her newborn Prince Charles© Getty
The Queen welcomed Charles in 1948

Prince 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'.

The Daily Mail revealed: "When the King's private secretary Tommy Lascelles brought the good news, Philip bounded upstairs into the Buhl Room, which had been converted into an operating theatre. He then held his firstborn, still wearing his sporting flannels and open-neck shirt."

Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise was born on 15 August 1950 at 11.50am – this time at Clarence House due to the palace being renovated following the war. And it was another boy, Prince Andrew, for the Queen and Prince Phillip on 19 February 1960, who, like Charles, was born at Buckingham Palace in the Belgian suite.

Princess Anne with charles, Philip and the late queen © Getty
Princess Anne was born in August 1950

Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis arrived in the world on 10 March 1964, again at Buckingham Palace, and it was the first birth that Prince Phillip had attended with his wife.

Baby Prince Edward with Prince Andrew and the Queen in 1964© Getty
The Queen with Andrew and baby Edward in 1964

An article in the New York Times revealed: "The baby was placed in the cream-coloured iron cradle originally made for his mother. Later he will be transferred to the Moses Basket, which was the property of the late Queen Mary, the present Queen's grandmother."

LISTEN: Inside King Charles' private lunch with Princess Kate

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