Meghan Markle Was ‘Mocked’ For Birth Plan Before Being Rushed To Hospital

She had reportedly been planning to give birth to her son at her Frogmore cottage estate, but following news Meghan Markle went to a hospital after all to have her baby, reports have surfaced that her initial desire to give birth at home was mocked by medical experts.

According to the Daily Mail, at a gathering of the world’s top OB-GYN doctors in Nashville, Tennessee over the weekend, the fact that the Duchess of Sussex wanted to have a home birth for her first child was openly mocked by some of those in attendance who felt it was unrealistic for her to think it was an option.

“Meghan Markle has decided she’s going to have a doula and a willow tree...let’s see how that goes,’ dr. Timothy Draycott reportedly said at the conference to an audience of doctors who reportedly erupted in laughter. “She’s 37, first birth...I don’t know.”

Markle had famously shunned the idea of giving birth at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s hospital, where both her husband, Prince Harry and Prince William were born, as well as William’s three children with Kate Middleton. Though the decision to have a home birth was also criticized early on, it was also noted that she would be reverting back to a royal tradition, as Queen Elizabeth herself gave birth to her four children at home in either Buckingham Palace of Clarence House.

The news she was mocked also comes after reports that the initial plan to have a home birth were scrapped last minute and Markle was secretly rushed to a hospital instead by Prince Harry’s private security. According to Daily Mail, Prince Harry’s Scotland yard team secretly whisked his wife off to a hospital, believed to be The Portland, on Sunday, after she became a week overdue. She spent the night at the facility before officially welcoming her son at 5:26 a.m. Monday morning.

As for why the plans changed, consultant obstetrician and gynecologist Peter Bowen-Simkins told the publication that the home birth may not have been possible because this was her first child, which means her body wasn’t as prepared for birth as it would have been if she’d had another child previously.

“When you have your first baby you essentially have an ‘untried pelvis,’” he said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen when the body prepares for labor and birth. If a woman is on her second or subsequent baby and has had a normal delivery before then it’s likely there wouldn’t be any problem at all. But you don’t know that’s going to be the case until you have your first baby.”