Surprising Things You Didn't Know About Royal Pregnancies

There is nothing more headline-making than a royal pregnancy. While it seems like royals are dogged by the press for any minor glimpse into their lives, public interest only grows tenfold when a royal is expecting. Because of that media frenzy, we think we know all there is to know about royal pregnancies, but that's not entirely true. Whether it's looking back at Renaissance or Tudor queens in the past, or digging up quietly reported tidbits about the modern duchesses, there are still a lot of surprising things surrounding royal pregnancies.

In past centuries, royal births were much different than the pregnancies we are familiar with today. Queens were swept away into birthing rooms a month before their due dates, and were bombarded with masculine images so they could birth sons. Then when it was finally time to push, a royal often went through labor in front a huge audience of people to ensure the heir was real. 

But queens from a bygone era aren't the only ones who took part in unusual customs. In today's times, births are still announced by a town crier, and some princesses went as far as inducing their own labors so the press frenzy could end. Ahead are some of the most surprising things you might not have known about royal pregnancies.