Media camped outside the hospital where Kate is staying.
For weeks now, gossip magazines have been listing signs that the Duchess of Cambridge (formerly known as Kate Middleton) is pregnant with a royal baby.
Well, pop the champagne and polish the royal china. The news is official. The Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant.
The announcement came overnight via St James Palace. In a statement they said:
“Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby. The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry and members of both families are delighted with the news…Her Royal Highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter.”
Just three days ago, Kate was running around her old school playing hockey.
Kate is reportedly not quite 12 weeks pregnant (although the BBC is reporting she’s two months pregnant) and has been admitted to hospital “with acute morning sickness and is expected to stay in hospital for several days.”
The Royal Palace would only confirm the couple became aware of the pregnancy “recently”. According to reports from the UK press, the Queen and other members of the royal family didn’t know Kate was pregnant and only found out after she was admitted to hospital.
This from the BBC:
BBC’s royal correspondent Peter Hunt said William and Kate were staying at her parents in Berkshire at the weekend and travelled to the private London hospital from there by car.
It is understood that Kate is being cared for by gynecologist Marcus Setchell, who delivered the Countess of Wessex’s two children.
The baby will be third in line to the throne behind Prince Charles and Prince William. Under new British laws which came into effect last year, the child’s uncle – Prince Harry – will be bumped down the line to fourth.
We couldn’t be happier for the couple.
Looking for more up-to-the-minute-info on Kate and Wills? Our friends over at iVillage can help you out. Go on, you know you want to…
The morning sickness solution Kate probably won’t be trying.
Thirty eight ways to predict a baby’s sex.
The t-shirts that Kate Middleton wishes she could be wearing
The baby shower cakes that you wont want to take to the Royal Family
Get ready for a whole lot of beautifully tailored and glamorous pregnancy outfits from the Duchess over the coming months. If you’re expected but you know, not going to royal balls (well, at least not regularly) then we’ve got you covered for colourful and comfortable maternity wear: MORE HERE.
Mamamia Shop.
Comments
48 Comments so far
Twins for sure ! Common to have HG level sickness needing medical intervention !
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I had it with my second pregnancy. It rolled in like a storm cloud. I was okay in the morning and by late afternoon I couldn’t get off the couch, except to stagger to the toilet and heave my guts up.
I remember my then four year old knocking on the toilet door and asking if I was okay. My mum had to take over the household as I couldn’t get out of bed and needed a dark room and sips of Coke just to maintain consciousness. My poor baby was surviving on Coke! I was in and out of hospital and sick until week 20 when it subsided – slightly.
Poor Kate. It truly is like your worst hangover ever, combined with your worst bout of seasickness ever, and never ever getting relief. I think I never had that third baby because I couldn’t bear to live through this again.
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HG. Not funny. I remember not being able to shower, eat, stand up or be in an undarkened room. I remember thinking if I could just go to sleep and not wake up, that would be alright.
It wasn’t about having a baby, it was about survival.
So many people said ‘you’ll forget all about this when your baby arrives’
I will never, ever forget that for as long as I live.
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You don’t forget it. I can’t remember any of the pain of birth but i remember the HG. It made me cry with the memory of it when i heard that kate was pregnant!
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Good to hear some informed comments about HG. I was reading the Daily Mail website this morning and the amount of ignorant comments along the lines of ‘suck it up princess’ or ‘I had severe morning sickness and I still went to work’ was infuriating.
I am currently on maternity leave, but was ‘lucky’ enough to be pregnant along with two other women in my team at work prior to having my baby. I had HG, the others did not. My supposedly highly educated (childless) manager made a number of comments about how my performance at work had declined since being pregnant and it wasn’t really fair for me to expect the others to pick up my slack when I was sick because the other women had the same ‘condition’ as me. That condition being pregnant. There was absolutely no understanding of HG from anyone and even my pregnant friend told me she just knew how to handle her morning sickness better. The worst is every random person (even the Dr I saw in emergency) giving stupid advice like eating ginger and crackers. The idea of even water repulsed me. If the solution was as simple as eating some crackers I would’ve been doing it! I couldn’t even take the anti nausea medication I was prescribed without vomiting it up.
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I didn’t have HG but suffered terrible with bad morning sickness both pregnancies for the whole time. It was awful.
I really feel so sorry for any woman who has HG…. but at the same time the term ‘Hyperemesis Gravidarum’ makes me smile, it sounds like a spell from Harry Potter.
Don’t shoot my anyone, I said ‘the term’, not ‘the condition’.
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“Under new British laws which came into effect last year, the child’s uncle – Prince Harry – will be bumped down the line to fourth.”
Not really, it’s always been the case that a child to William will bump William’s brother down the order of succession. What you may be thinking of is that if it’s a girl, she would be liable to being bumped down by a subsequent son but a change (still to be passed by all countries which have the Queen as head of state) to the laws of succession means it will be the eldest child regardless of gender.
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Diana if it’s a girl?
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that’s my guess
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Although Queenie probably wouldn’t approve!
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Congratulations Kate and William !
May everything go well throughout the pregnancy.
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I suffered hyperemesis with both my pregnancies. It is an utterly debilitating and not well understood condition. While i wish the duchess all the best for her pregnancy and the safe delivery of a healthy baby i also hope that this will raise awareness (and research?!) into this disease.
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Always thrilled when someone is pregnant, but having been through 4 pregnancies and 3 of them ending in miscarriage – 9 weeks, 11 weeks & 13 weeks, I just hope they haven’t jumped the gun by announcing it to the whole world.
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Not like they had much choice.
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I dont think they had a choice.
We had to jump the gun with one of mine too. My HG had me bedridden for 12 weeks and it became a little difficult to keep making up excuses why I was suddenly missing from life. We didnt want people to worry that there was something seriously wrong with me (which there was, but for a good reason) so we had to be honest.
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I had to announce it to my boss when i was pregnant the 2nd time round at 7 weeks. fortunately he was the same manager i had had when i was pregnant the first time. That time the people at work thought i was suffering from a terminal illness as i lost so much weight so rapidly and was coming to work with bruises on my arms after spending each weekend in hospital on a drip. Better to be open and be able to get the support and understanding that you need.
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I just can’t believe she can play hockey in those boots! Respect.
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I was horrendously sick in my first pregnancy, I wasnt hospitalised and I dread to think how ill you would have to be to end up there. It was the worst thing ive gone through physically. I was so nervous trying for our 2nd. Thankfully I wasnt that ill second time around, I was able to eat! Poor Kate. I feel for her. It really pisses me off that people think it’s not serious. Ive read stories about women who’ve had to terminate pregnancies because of HG. Its a horrendous thing to have to go through.
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What I find really interesting is that the Act of Settlement is about to be repealed.
What this means is that if the first child is a girl, she will become Queen regardless of any subsequent children being boys. Under the Act of Settlement girls were passed over for boys in the line of succession.
Score 1 for royal equality I suppose.
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HG is a terrible pregnancy condition. It’s terrible that Kate is suffering from HG but hopefully this will raise its profile so more can be done to support women with this condition. My sister, in the UK, suffered through HG with both her pregnancies. She’s been on Sky News UK this morning to discuss it and will be on again tonight (dec 4th morning uk time). All those saying Kate just needs to toughen up are clueless to the true nature of HG.
Fortunately my sister had the strength of character and determination to live with HG and now has two wonderful daughters. I admire all women who can survive HG, and especially those brave enough to have more children and risk suffering again.
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Congratulations to them!
I am not at all pleased to hear that she is unwell, but a bit happy that they are being open in saying that she has hyperemesis. It is SHOCKING to live through that and really takes a toll. So a bit of publicity around that is not a bad thing (not everyone glows during pregnancy. I put a total of 1kg on my entire pregnancy as I was so sick).
But still lovely news. Every baby is a precious one!
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Poor thing, having her hand forced like that when they weren’t ready. What if she miscarries? I wouldn’t want to play that story out in front of the world. Fingers crossed all goes well.
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How do you know they weren’t ready? Did I miss something?
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Oh, NOW I get it! You mean news of the pregnancy, not the pregnancy itself. Sorry. I agree.
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IWhy do people wait for the 12 week mark to tell people about their pregnancy? I realise the chance of miscarrying is greater before then but if you do miscarry and are devastated but nobody even knew you were pregnant wouldn’t that be harder? I thought the fact that nobody knew and nobody understands why you’re sad would make you feel even more alone… or something.
I realise that for Kate Middleton it’s a bit different because her life is so public of course.
I don’t have kids so perhaps I’ll understand this better when I do…?
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Yeah, I think it’s a kind of catch-22. If you don’t tell anyone then people won’t understand why you’re terribly upset if you have a miscarriage. But then again, some people prefer for their grief to be private if that does happen, and may not want others asking them about their pregnancy from day dot.
I used to work as a nanny for a couple where the father had insisted that no one be told about the pregnancy until it was confirmed that the baby didn’t have Down Syndrome, because if it did, he would have insisted on the mother having an abortion. What a charmer.
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Oh my god , really !!!
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Because people would be endlessly coming up and saying congratulations on the pregnancy and you’d have to tell them that you had a miscarriage. It would be heart breaking, over and over again.
It’s better to wait rather than have to deal with that. plus in a lot of cultures it’s thought of as bad luck to announce it prior to 3 months.
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I think people wait till 12 weeks to tell because that is when they have the nuchal scan which is the test for downs syndrome. I assume some people dont have this test at all, some do just to be informed and some do so that they can terminate if this is the case. I am sure the people who make that extremely difficult choice would not want people to know they had been pregnant..
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All those reasons above make sense… my experience with pregnancies is almost non-existent so I hadn’t thought of any of that before. Thanks everyone for your thoughtful responses.
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I guess the emotions can be so complicated, that it makes it easier to keep it private, rather than have to explain the whole lot to extended family and friends, were there to be a problem. One of my pregnancies happened quite soon after my first child was born. It was unplanned, and I wasn’t thrilled to be pregnant again so soon. I was still breastfeeding and my baby was far from sleeping through the night. After a week of knowing I was pregnant, I had come to love the idea. Babies would be close in age! It would actually be easier in the long term! But then the next day I miscarried, and felt terrible. No way in hell would I want to explain all of that to my brother in law, boss, acquaintances, etc. Too much of a rollercoaster which would leave everyone feeling uncomfortable. Having said that, I don’t hide the fact that I’ve had miscarriages. If it comes up in conversation, I think it’s good for women to talk about it, as a way of passing on the knowledge and normality of it to other women and men.
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I suffered the same thing, with one of my pregnancies I lost 11 kilos. It was hideous and not something I would wish on my worst enemy. I hope it passes soon and she begins to feel better quickly.
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Congratulations to them both. I suffered severe hyperemesis gravidarum to the date of delivery with both my children. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I hope she is feeling better soon.
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Yeah right, as if she didn’t know she was pregnant. Your child will be the most hotly anticipated heir in goodness knows how long, I’m pretty sure she would be aware of when the conception worked and be doing all the extra careful things the rest of us do once we know we have those two lines on a stick!
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Where does it say she didn’t know she was pregnant?
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it said the queen didn’t know, not that the duchess didn’t know…
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Hello other Lottie!
Hey MM team, maybe we could somehow have a name register or something so we don’t double up?
Just a thought
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Ahh so I doooo have something in common with the Duchess after all!! HG!! All I can say the poor thing. To say you are extremely sick is an understatement – think about the very very worst hangover you have ever had and then that nothing really makes it better and it will continue indefinitely. Depressed AND sick. I wanted to kill myself and the very strong meds I was on (that they give chemo patients) really only took the edge off….it makes for a very long and not terribly exciting time. Good luck Kate!
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Yes and then add burst blood vessels in your eyes from straining to vomit so much. Its awful!!!
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Yes, i got those too! Basically it is nine months of your life where you are committed to being in bed and staggering to the toilet. Even getting up and having a shower sent me into a spiral of vomiting and wiped me out for the rest of the day. I think any woman who has HG shudders when she hears of another suffering with it. It is truly the worst.
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Or the wetting your pants spew because you just can’t hold both in at the same time. lol sorry, is that tmi?
Or the fact that your ribs hurt all the time from the effort
Or trying to time your spews to fit in with traffic lights. I used to drive with a plastic bag on my lap but it was always easier once you hit a red light.
Oh it really is the worse thing in the world!
I was put on prednisone which worked to control it, but I couldn’t stay on that and ultimately it had an impact (I developed GD as well, probably from the prednisone).
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Congratulations to both, very exciting news !!
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Lovely news – hope she feels better soon
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Jesus, even though the acute morning sickness would be utterly shitful, it’d be a bit of a blessing in disguise for her wouldn’t it? I remember the scrutiny Diana was under, if I was Kate I’d be glad of the safety of the hospital. When I wasn’t you know, throwing up.
Maybe it’s the modern royal equivalent of a confinement?
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No way. HG is the worst experience of my life.
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No HG is one of the worst things imaginable. Next time you feel so nauseous you have to lie down just imagine it never going away, not even after vomiting. Not even while you sleep. I used wake up to vomit too. And imagine doing that for 24 hours, with no respite for 16 weeks straight, or for some women the entire 9 months. I think Kate would rather be photographed in the nude running down Oxford St than go through HG.
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i was sick all day every day for 6 months. i started vomiting blood. trust me. you don’t want to go there.
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If you want to learn more about Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) then go to http://www.helpher.org and read up. It doesn’t take long. The more people who are aware the better!!
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