Although, I do not generally tend to be a fickle soul, it has been pointed out to me more than once of late, that I have left my morals at that door.   My once apathetic view of the Royals has done such an about turn, that when someone so much as mentions the Royal Baby, my pulse rate quickens and my heart looks as though it’s about to burst out of my chest.  The worst thing is, it’s not even about the baby, now don’t get me wrong, I love a baby, but this full on girl crush swoon, is all about the Duchess.  And if I were going to break it down even further, it’s about her likely use of natal hypnotherapy, hypnobirthing to us mere mortals, in preparation for the birth of the beautiful, Gorgeous George.

Most of the time I feel quite comfortable turning my nose up at the ever present ‘cult of celebrity’.  Yes I love Emma Willis, but I would rather watch my husband clipping his toenails than sit and watch the drivel that is Big Brother.   Will I confess to having the Kardashian Klan on my Sky Plus, yes I will,  but this is purely for research purposes (don’t ask me what type of research involves Kim, Kourtney and Khloe, I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you).  My point is, it’s a been more than a bit of an ongoing bug bear of mine that unless it’s got a celebrity in front of it, we won’t buy it .  Just one look at the TV listings over a weekend says it all.  Celebrity Mr and Mrs, Celebrity All Star Family Fortunes, we have to have a version of Celebrity Master Chef, I’m a Celebrity get me out of here and the list goes on….and on, and on…..Bog off!  Apologies readers.  Not only do I digress, but I now have to hold my hands up, and say that I am now indeed revelling in the impact of having probably the most famous woman in country, apparently wearing the T-Shirt for the cause I am most passionate about.

When you have a member of the royal family looking to use hypnobirthing to bring a future monarch into the world; it takes something that has been on the peripheries of antenatal education and brings it to the attention of the mainstream.  It takes methods that have potentially been viewed as, only something for lentil eating vegetarians or the militant, anti-anything but fresh air brigade and creates a buzz.  It gets people asking the question…What if there’s something in this?  Well if it’s good enough, for the lovely, normal, middle class, Reiss loving Kate – maybe it’s something for me?  I should say at this juncture, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with lentil eating vegetarians, particularly those who’d like to have a calm and confident childbirth which is essentially what hypnobirthing is all about.  My point is, that in the past, I believe that hypnobirthing has been viewed as somewhat ‘alternative’, different, or for women who are a bit ‘out there’, but when someone like Kate ‘has got the T-Shirt’, it becomes a game changer, a shift in mainstream perception means that many more people want to get The T-Shirt too.

So, am I celebrating people jumping on yet another band wagon?  Yes I am.  Do I care that this may be seen as a fad, a trend, which people will be excited about until the equivalent of the next ‘5-2’ comes about?  No, I do not.  I wholeheartedly believe, that the more pregnant women educate themselves about the physiology of birth; the more women feel empowered as they go into their birthing day, because all the techniques and tools that hypnobirthing courses provide, the more positive birth stories we will hear.  The more positive stories we hear from friends, cousins, daughters, the more likely it is that pregnant mum’s of the future will take it upon themselves to empower themselves with the same knowledge that their friends and family have told them about.  And that will be a very beautiful thing.

So Kate, if you fancy a large Pinot as a thank you from me and a bit of girly chin wag  – once you’ve finished breast feeding of course – you know where to find me!