王室宝贝：你不知道的五件事
Royal babies: Five things you didn't know
Amid all the excitement about the eagerly-awaited new addition to the royal family, you may think you know all you could ever want to about royal babies. But did you know...
英国王室即将喜添新丁, 被热切等待的兴奋心情包围的你, 也许以为自己对王室宝贝了解得已经够多了. 但是下面我们要说的你可不一定知道.
A government minister used to be present at royal births, to make sure the baby was not switched
英国政府大臣曾在场见证新王室成员的诞生,确保宝宝不被掉包
The practice is believed to have begun in 1688, when dozens of officials watched Mary of Modena, wife of James II, give birth to a son, to scotch rumors that Mary was not really pregnant and that the baby was to be smuggled into the room in a bedpan.
据说此惯例开始于1688年,当时盛传詹姆斯二世的妻子——摩德纳的玛丽是假怀孕,孩子将放在便盆里偷偷送进产房,为了平息这一谣言,数十名英国官员目睹玛丽王后诞下了一个儿子.
The tradition continued well into the 20th century. The last royal birth to be witnessed by a government minister was that of Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, Princess Alexandra in 1936, and the practice was only officially halted shortly before the birth of Prince Charles in 1948.
这个传统一直延续到20世纪.上一次有英国政府大臣见证的王室宝贝诞生是在1936年,伊丽莎白女王二世的表妹亚历山德拉公主出生的时候.直到1948年查尔斯王子出生之前,此惯例才被正式终止.
Royal husbands have not always attended the birth of their children
王室宝贝的父亲在孩子出生时不一定会在旁守候
Queen Elizabeth II may not have had to contend with ministerial interference in her birth plan, but she also didn't have her husband there for support; while she gave birth to Prince Charles, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh was busy playing squash.
英国女王伊丽莎白二世也许没有内政大臣来干预她的生子计划, 但是在她分娩的时候丈夫却不在身边支持她,在她生查尔斯王子的时候,菲利普亲王正忙于打壁球.
Queen Victoria was the first royal to use anesthesia in childbirth
维多利亚女王是第一个在分娩时使用麻醉剂的王室成员
The long-reigning monarch and mother-of-nine was given chloroform for pain relief during the births of her eighth and ninth children, Prince Leopold (born in 1853) and Princess Beatrice (born in 1857).
作为长期执政的女王以及九个孩子的母亲,维多利亚女王在生第八个孩子利奥波德王子（出生于1853年）和第九个孩子比阿特丽丝公主（出生于1857）时使用了氯仿麻醉剂以减轻疼痛.
Her decision to opt for an anesthetic is credited with popularizing the use of painkillers during childbirth among the well-to-do of the time.
她决定采用麻醉剂对于当时英国富裕人家生孩子使用止痛药起到了普及作用.
John Snow, the doctor who administered the drug, is better known as one of the founding fathers of epidemiology, after he traced a deadly outbreak of cholera to a Soho water pump.
