Filipino nurses assisted Kate Middleton in giving birth to the future king of Britain

LONDON--Filipino nurses were among those who assisted Kate Middleton in giving birth to a future king of the United Kingdom, Filipinos working at St. Mary's Hospital told InterAksyon.com on Tuesday morning in London.



A Filipina nurse who requested anonymity said that several Filipino "theatre nurses"--equivalent to nurses assigned to a hospital's operating room--had assisted in Middleton's childbirth on Monday at room 301 of the exclusive Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital.


However, these nurses have been ordered to keep other details of the childbirth to themselves in light of keeping the privacy and security of the royal family.


About 300 Filipino nurses work at St. Mary's Hospital, according to the Filipina nurse interviewed by InterAksyon, adding that Filipinos are "dominant" in terms of number in the said hospital. She herself has been employed at St. Mary's Hospital's admission ward (akin to an accident emergency room) for 13 years now.


"Masaya kaming lahat na dito nanganak si Kate," the Filipina nurse said. (We're all so happy that Kate gave birth in this hospital.)



Besides nurses, the hospital also employs Filipino cleaners, porters, logistics personnel, ambulance service trainers, administrative staff, among others.

At least five other Filipinos working at St. Mary's Hospital said Filipino nurses were indeed assigned at Lindo Wing.




For Jonard Cartagena, an ambulance service trainer in St. Mary's Hospital, the publicity and worldwide attention brought by the royal baby's will definitely help boost sales of retailers of memorabilia and souvenirs that will ride on the event, as well as lure in more tourists.

"London is back in the map," said Cartagena, who has been working in the UK the past 26 years.

More than 200,000 Filipinos live and work in the UK and most of them is in and around London, the capital.

source: interaksyon.com

Last-minute bets pour in for British royal baby

LONDON - A flood of last-minute bets on Britain's royal baby poured in on Monday even as Prince William's wife Catherine was in hospital in labor.

Most of the money was going on the name of the third-in-line to the throne, with one bookie suspending betting on the subject.

"The money really is pouring in. We have taken about £30,000 ($45,000, 35,000 euros) in the last three hours. It's unbelievable," Rory Scott, a spokesman for Irish bookmakers Paddy Power, told AFP.

"The majority of that is on the name. We have suspended betting on the date."

Speculation that the baby is a girl, based on a misheard comment by Kate in March, means girls' names are most popular with the punters.

"There is a clear view that the baby will be a girl so there is lots of activity around girls' names," a spokeswoman for British betting firm William Hill told AFP.

"Alexandra and Charlotte are the most popular."

Other favored names are Diana, William's mother's name; Elizabeth, after the current queen; and Victoria, after Britain's longest reigning monarch.

Those who think the baby will be a boy have plumped for George and James.

James is the name of Kate's brother but George has been the favorite "from day one", say the bookies.

Bookies say they have taken more than £1 million in total on what they have called the biggest novelty (non-sporting) market of all time.

Bets have come in from around the world with one Austrian man placing £1,000 on a male baby.

Scott said the amount of money is "quite staggering" and compared to what would be placed on English football's FA Cup final.

"We have taken about £10,000 a day over the weekend," he said.

The most bets by volume have been on the name Diana but they have been smaller amounts of money and it has drifted out of the odds, he said.

The date itself seems nearly certain with firms suspending the betting on Monday now that the Duchess of Cambridge is in labor.

In the run-up it was an unpopular choice of day, though.

"The 17th was the most popular. Only five percent of the bets were placed on today -- today was an outsider," said the William Hill spokeswoman.

"Everyone seemed to think that the baby would come last week."

Even after the birth there will be no rest for the betting firms, with people now betting on Kate's sister putting in an appearance.

"We are running bets now on the colour of the dress Pippa will be wearing on her first visit to the hospital and how many times Pippa will run the media gauntlet, how many times she will enter in the hospital and who will be holding the baby on the steps. The current favourite is William," Scott said.

There are also bets on the godparents with "the usual suspects -- David Beckham, Prince Harry, and Pippa" among the favorites, said the William Hill spokeswoman.

And the betting bonanza could go on for years -- firms are already taking wagers on baby number two.

source: interaksyon.com