Not for the common folk, though

Wonderful news that Sarah Brown, the wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been safely delivered of a baby boy. A full-term normal delivery.

Excellent!

Dr Crippen joins everyone in congratulating the couple.

Rhona Hughes, lead obstetrician at the hospital, said the birth had been very straightforward, with no complications.

"John has just been in to see his new little brother for the first time and he seems to have had some ideas for his name," she said.

"We expect the family to leave the hospital towards the end of the week." (BBC)

And the Guardian is not far behind:

Obstetrician Dr Rhona Hughes said: "It was a very straight forward delivery with no complications. Both mother and son are doing well, and dad is absolutely delighted.

John has just been in to see his new little brother for the first time - and he seems to have had some ideas for his name. We expect the family to leave the hospital towards the end of the week. Gordon and Sarah have the very best wishes of all the staff here, and we are absolutely delighted for them." (Guardian on-line)

Dr Rhona Huges is one of the most experienced and respected consultant obstetricians in Scotland. She has a University appointment. She has been qualified for over 20 years. She is an MD and an FRCOG. A clever lady indeed.

She delivered the Brown’s previous baby, John, in 2003, as reported here in October 2003:

Dr Rhona Hughes, consultant obstetrician of the new Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, said mother and child were doing "very well" following the delivery at the hospital’s Simpson’s Centre for Reproductive Health.

Speaking outside the unit, Dr Hughes said she was "delighted" to say the new baby was healthy and that "mother and baby are both doing very well."

Simpson’s Centre for Reproductive Health is itself a centre of excellence, one of the finest obstetric units in the world. It is where JK Rowling, no less, had her last baby

Simpson’s Centre for Reproductive Health

All good stuff.

This is how and where the great and the good have their babies. How often do consultant obstetricians go to a labour ward to do a normal delivery for an NHS patient? Dr Crippen has never seen this happen in the whole of his medical career. Not once. Nor does he have a single NHS patient who has had a noramal delivery conducted by a consultant. Not one.

Note that Dr Rhona Hughes says, “it was a very straight forward delivery with no complications.”

So why was the baby not delivered by a midwife?

You know, those non-medically qualified people who “specialise” in normal deliveries. The archetypal "nurse-specialists". Those people who delivered your baby. Why did a midwife not deliver Leo, the Blair’s youngest child? Why did the Blair children not go to a comprehensive school like your children?

Because this is New Labour. One set of rules for them. One set of rules for us.

It makes me sick.

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The real truth

The correspondence has only just started, but already a consultant obstetrician has basically said, “of course the great and the good get a doctor” for their deliveries. In other words, even the obstetricians do not trust the midwives.

This is the real truth.