40 Royal Pregnancy Traditions The Public Isn't Supposed To Be Privy To

Now that you’ve married a royal, it’s your job to provide an heir to the throne. Sorry ladies! But on top of carrying a child for nine months, there’s a ton of rules expectant royal mothers must adhere to. All of them are intriguing, some are downright bizarre — and either way, you get a peek behind that velvet curtain the royal family.

No fathers, please

If fathers wanted to be present for their baby’s birth, they were out of luck. Until recent years, it’s been a royal tradition to keep them out of the delivery room. But at least Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, allegedly ignored this rule on multiple occasions. After all, who was going to tell him not to?

Encourage the imagination

In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was commonplace to inundate royal mothers-to-be with pictures of male babies. That’s pretty weird, but it gets stranger. People thought a woman’s imagination shaped not only their baby’s development but also its gender. Because of this, pregnant women also avoided images of animals, which were thought to cause birth abnormalities.

Hide those feet

Everybody’s got feet, but not everyone wants to see them. At least, that’s the royal protocol, and it doesn’t matter if you’re pregnant and have swollen feet. So regardless of whether the future royal mother is bloated, she still has to wear the traditional closed-toed footwear. That’s gotta hurt.

Monarchs first

In the world of nobility, the King must know about a new royal baby first — aside from the mother and doctor, of course! In fact, all top-ranking royals are informed prior to the public. So when Prince Archie was born in 2019, the royals issued a statement saying members such as Charles, Prince Phillip, and even Princess Diana’s sisters had “been informed and are delighted with the news.”