Kate Middleton’s quick birth day turnaround, which she managed all while looking flawless, has become the talk of the town – and of probably any woman who has had a baby.
The British royal couple welcomed their third baby Monday morning at St Mary's Hospital in west London and, several hours later, the Duchess of Cambridge was released to go home, The Washington Post reported.
Her early departure was enough to set tongues wagging but her perfectly manicured appearance put them in overdrive.
As the royal couple introduced their new son, who is yet to be named, to the world outside the hospital, the cameras caught Middleton looking radiant with her hair and makeup perfectly done.
And, ladies, sit down for this ... she was wearing heels!
The images left many flabbergasted.
Middleton made quick exits following the births of her two previous children, as well.
According to People magazine, she spent the night at the hospital after giving birth to Prince George in 2013 but, when she welcomed Princess Charlotte into the world in 2015, she left the hospital less than 10 hours later.
Why the rush?
For one thing, as The Guardian noted, while women in the U.S. tend to have longer hospital stays after giving birth, women in the U.K. have shorter maternity stays.
This was documented in a study in PLOS medical journal, which found that mothers in the U.K. had one of the shortest postpartum hospital stays in the developed world of just a day-and-a-half.
The sight of the royal family looking rested, done up and happy, might make some ecstatic but for others it is a stark reminder of how society idealizes childbirth.
“We don’t talk about postpartum or how much healing has to occur,” U.S. mom Samantha Shanley told the Post. “All these people are posting pics of tender moments with babies. … It’s almost like we ignore how it changes women’s bodies.”
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