Blue Ivy Carter’s birth puts NY hospital into lockdown

SHE’S not even two days old, but Beyonce and Jay-Z’s baby girl is already proving to be a diva thanks to the over-the-top security measures afforded her pushy, famous parents at the Manhattan hospital where she was born.

To accommodate the influential couple’s demand for privacy for them and Blue Ivy Carter at Lenox Hill Hospital, other new and expecting parents said they have essentially been put on “lockdown” — and even booted out of the neonatal intensive care unit, which was on the same floor as Beyonce’s delivery “suite” — so the pampered songstress and her party could come and go unencumbered.

“They just used the hospital like it was their own and nobody else mattered,” raged new dad Neil Coulon, whose efforts to see his premature, newborn twins in the neonatal ICU were disrupted by the first celebrity birth of 2012.

“They locked us into the NICU and would say ‘You can’t come out to the hallway for the next 20 minutes’. When I finally was able to go back out, I went to the waiting room and they’d ushered my family downstairs”

Beyonce, 30, and Jay-Z, 42, whose real name is Shawn Carter, welcomed their new princess, born by C-section, at the Upper East Side hospital on Saturday night.

The baby is reportedly named for her dad’s album Blueprint and her mum’s favourite number, 4 — represented by the Roman numeral IV, or “Ivy”.

The drama surrounding Blue Ivy’s long-awaited arrival began on Friday night, when Beyonce checked in under the name “Ingrid Jackson” and settled into her sixth-floor suite to have the baby.

Windows in the nearby NICU were blacked out with tape and temporary curtains were hung so that nobody could see the comings and goings of the VIP at the other end of the hallway.

Beyonce has “her own security, and hospital security”, a Lenox Hill employee said.

By yesterday, Blue Ivy and her mum had been moved to their special pad on the fourth floor, where the Grammy-winner and rap-legend dad showed her off to friends, the hospital employee said.

A hospital spokeswoman said the facility had special patient suites and that rooms could be reserved.

She declined to give the cost but said published reports that Jay-Z had shelled out $1.3 million (€1m) for “an entire floor” were exaggerated.

Last night, four security guards stood watch at the hospital’s fourth-floor elevator bank, where new parents and grandparents were voicing their frustrations over security measures that delayed or prevented them from visiting.

“People are really upset and complaining,” said the hospital worker, noting that the medical staff had to “shut down” whenever Beyonce moved.

Coulon — a Brooklyn contractor whose girls were born prematurely 11 days ago — said it happened at least four times between Friday and yesterday on the sixth floor.

He said some of his relatives drove four-and-a-half hours to see his girls, only to be shunted aside for Beyonce.

Of the other parents in the unit, he said: “These are parents who are going through very stressful times. To have that circus roll into town ... having to deal with all this drama because someone is a superstar isn’t fair.”

Beyonce had a steady stream of visitors yesterday. A makeup artist was spotted going up with several bags in tow, and lunch was delivered from a local burger joint and gourmet market.

Pals who didn’t make it to the hospital weighed in on Twitter — including Diddy, Russell Simmons and LaToya Jackson.

“Welcome to the world Blue! We love you already,” wrote Beyonce’s best friend Gwyneth Paltrow, while Rihanna tweeted: “Welcome to the world princess Carter! Love Aunty Rih.”