When someone like the Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to the third and fourth in line to the throne, there’s bound to be many hands involved both in the delivery room and behind the scenes – 23, to be exact.
William and Kate met two of the people who helped bring their children in to the world at the famous Lindo Wing in St Mary’s Hospital at a Buckingham Palace garden party on Tuesday afternoon. Also in attendance was Chief Superintendent Colin Morgan who was in charge of ‘policing operations’ around St Mary’s Hospital.
They chatted with Professor Teoh, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and anaesthetist Dr Jo Bray. The births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte had a team of medical experts and staff on hand. There were a handful of midwives led by a consultant obstetrician present in the delivery room for their births, but there were dozens of experts on stand-by ready for any emergency. This team included theatre staff, lab technician, replacement anaesthetists and paediatricians and Professor TG (Tiong Ghee) Teoh – a back-up for the consultant was also available. There was also staff from a special baby care unit.
Professor Teoh said: “For anything that could possibly go wrong we had a team of people behind each specialty, everybody was sworn to secrecy about what the event was.” When referring to the team, he said: “We had a team of obstetricians, gynaecologists, surgeons, haematologists, and theatre staff.”
He mentioned what an honour it was to be involved as part of the medical team, saying: “It felt very flattering” to be part of the medical team handling the royal births.
He added: “The press were there but so were our staff, we really enjoyed being part of the whole thing.”
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Kate had some of the top medical staff from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust who runs St. Mary’s on hand for the births of George and Charlotte.
Speaking of the Duchess, Professor Teoh said: “She was very appreciative of what happened and said there were a lot more people behind the scenes than (would be apparent).”
Dr Bray said: “It was a huge honour and very special for the hospital as well, at a time the NHS needed a bit of a pick-up really.
“It was a really big morale booster for St Mary’s actually, at that time.”
