The Bumpy History of Royal Pregnancy

So, with society still not quite comfortable talking about pregnancy (I Love Lucy never used the p-word the entire time its main character was expecting, in real life and on the show, in 1952), the people of Great Britain were most certainly not kept in the loop when it came to King George VI's eldest daughter. 

The press was limited to noting that she was in an "interesting condition," and they were discouraged from taking photos that would illustrate as much. And, in perhaps the biggest difference between then and now, they obliged.

Late on the evening of Nov. 14, 1948, BBC Home Service newsreader John Snagge announced exciting news (not from his staid, measured tone, but in theory) out of Buckingham Palace: "Her Royal Highness, Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, was safely delivered of a prince at 9:14 p.m., and...her royal highness and her son are both doing well. Listeners will wish us to offer their royal congratulations to Princess Elizabeth and the royal family on this happy occasion. We play the national anthem in honor of the prince."

Prince Charles was born at Buckingham Palace, Elizabeth's bedroom having been converted into a hospital suite in preparation for the occasion (with anesthesia at the ready—and utilized). Philip spent the birth playing squash, winning three straight matches.

"I knew she'd do it!" Commander Richard Coville, the king's press secretary, exclaimed upon the arrival of a firstborn son. "She'd never let us down!" George VI was simply delighted with the success of everything," according to Sally Bedell Smith's Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, while his wife, proud new grandmother Queen Elizabeth, was "beaming with happiness."

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