Kate Middleton apparently felt a lot of “pressure” when deciding on names for her and husband Prince William’s three children, Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four.
Amy Stubbs, the deputy director of the maternity unit at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, recalled her Princess of Wales’s visit to the midwifery during a recent interview with People. Kate toured the hospital in Guildford on Wednesday to learn about its work with pregnant women and new mothers. The event also marked the royal’s first major solo engagement since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
During the conversation, Stubbs praised the 40-year-old, detailing how easy it was for the princess to communicate with the mothers around her.
“She was very relatable. She talked a lot about how it felt for her when she became a mother,” Stubbs said.
As Kate continued meeting with the new parents and hospital staff members, Stubbs claimed Kate opened up about her own experience with her children. More specifically, Stubbs explained that Kate spoke about how she and William “made their choice” for their children’s names.
“She just really talked about her own children including how they chose their names,” Stubbs continued. “A lot of the new mums and dads are thinking about how to choose names for their babies, and they spoke with her about how Kate and William made their choice.”
Stubbs also said that some of the stress that Kate experienced throughout the naming process was that the “world was waiting” for the royal couple to publicly announce what each of their three children’s names would be.
One patient recalled that Kate asked one of the expectant mothers if she had come up with a name for her child during the visit. After the parent-to-be said that she had, Kate responded: “Everyone already has names for their babies! It took us ages to name ours.”
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Elsewhere in her interview with People, Stubbs called Kate “delightful” and described how she interacted with “new babies across the whole service”.
“She spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the staff and meeting mums and dadas and new babies across the whole service,” Stubbs said. “It was a really joyful for everyone to have that opportunity and hugely validating for us as a service for her to take the time out to visit us.”
This healthcare professional went on to share that the royal also spoke to the parents about “mental wellbeing through pregnancy”.
“She was particularly interested in maternal mental health and how we are supporting maternal mental wellbeing through pregnancy and in the early postnatal periods,” Stubbs added. “She particularly spent a lot of time talking to staff and families about that aspect of care and how that felt for them.”
This wasn’t the first time that Kate has been vocal about mental health awareness. In June 2021, she launched the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which aims to “raise awareness of why the first five years of life are just so important for our future life outcomes”.
During a 2020 appearance on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, the Duchess of Cambridge detailed how “passionate” she is about spending time outside for the sake of her own mental health.
“I think it’s so great for physical and mental wellbeing and laying [developmental] foundations,” Kate explained. “It’s such a great environment to spend time in, building those quality relationships without the distractions of ‘I’ve got to cook’ and ‘I’ve got to do this’. And actually, it’s so simple.”
She also recalled how she spent her childhood doing outdoor activities, which are habits that she wants to “incorporate” into her children’s lives.
“I had an amazing granny who devoted a lot of time to us, playing with us, doing arts and crafts and going to the greenhouse to do gardening, and cooking with us,” she said. “And I try and incorporate a lot of the experiences that she gave us at the time into the experiences that I give my children now.”