The Home Secretary having to attend Royal Births to make sure bunny rabbits and so on arent substituted.
Oh God there is a piece in the Times today about that.
James II (bad King and also an RC I regret to say) had a legitimate son which really got those Prots thinking and concentrating on whether they wanted a RC monarch in perpetuity. So the first thing is to say it was a girl and a boy was smuggled in, in a bed pan.
It is all here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Pretender
Hence the need for a politician to witness and say THIS is a Royal Baby ....
The last time was in 1926 when our dear monarch was born and Joynson Hicks the Home Secretary had to go and listen to The Queen Mum groaning in labour at York House Piccadilly.
according to the Times today
The only thing was, was that the labour was obstructed/ did not progress and the result was a caesarian section - not without risk in those days. - ether, no drips no blood transfusion AND at home.....
The QM was notoriously secretive about these things and the official announcment just said:
a certain course of action was successfully followed.
I agree that the amount of detail I have about thse things may be considered unhealthy.
Oh, and another thing - first on Answerbank - Marcus Setchell the Royal Gynaecologist and surgeon accoucheur who is attending Kate, got all the prizes when he was a medical student at Barts. Bright Fellow. I mean all of them