10 Baby Factlets

Dear Kate

If you are reading this, congratulations to you and Wills on the birth of your baby.

Sincerely

Bytes

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I love this one:

Some years ago there were several married undergraduates at Cambridge, and on discovering that "many of their wives were lonely" Launcelot Fleming, then dean of Trinity Hall, arranged a tea party in his rooms so that the wives could meet each other. However, several had to turn down the invitation as prams and babies were not allowed into the college. In order to solve the problem, the college authorities called the babies "honorary cats".

- Michael Hauser-Raspe, Cambridge, UK. 29 January 2005

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18524841.100-miaowing-babies.html

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Babies don't have kneecaps, rather they have a structure of cartilage that resembles kneecaps. They usually don’t develop them fully until after six months. 

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Air fresheners may cause diarrhoea and earache in babies say scientists. They found that infants in homes where air fresheners and aerosols were used every day were 32% more likely to suffer from stomach and ear complaints. 

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When babies are born, they have 300 bones. Adults have 206. Bones fuse together during growth to come up with the new number. 

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Queen Victoria bore nine children. By 1901, they had given her over forty grandchildren, including George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Alexandra, the Tsarina of Russia.

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Seventeenth century queens laboured and delivered their babies in public. In 1688, the bedroom of Mary of Modena, wife of James II, was crowded with over seventy onlookers, who were making sure that the pregnancy was genuine and that a boy was not smuggled in concealed in a bed pan!

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The first midwife’s oath was sworn by Eleanor Pead, in Canterbury, in 1567. Her duties included treating women of all classes equally, reporting illegitimate arrivals and refraining from the use of witchcraft.

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Women had always used herbal remedies to ease their labour pains, particularly the oils of roses and lilies. Stronger pain relief was forbidden and in 1591, midwife Ursula Kemp was burned at the stake for prescribing opium to a labouring mother.

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The idea of dressing girls in pink and boys in blue is a relatively modern idea. Until the 1920s, pink and red were considered, strong, masculine colours while blue was seen as softer and more feminine.

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Unlike William and the Windsors, it took Henry VIII twenty-eight years and three wives in order to beget a legitimate male heir to the Tudor dynasty. Fertility issues were always considered to be the fault of the woman; no one would dare question the King’s ability to procreate, except perhaps Henry himself!

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Your program for the line of succession: