Kate’s not ‘too posh to push’ as royal baby to be born naturally

Sources yesterday confirmed that the Duchess was hoping to have a natural delivery at the private Lindo wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington next month and will not join those dubbed “too posh to push” by having an elective caesarian.

It had been thought that William and Kate were having a girl after the Duchess appeared to stop herself saying the word daughter during an official engagement in March.

But the royal couple do not know the gender and want it to be a surprise when he or she is born some time in mid July.

A source said: “The Duke and Duchess do not know the sex of their baby and they’ve decided not to find out beforehand.”

In choosing St Mary’s, the royal couple have picked the London hospital where a host of royal babies, including William and his brother Prince Harry, were born

The Duchess will be tended by a top medical team led by the Queen’s former gynaecologist, Marcus Setchell, who delivered the Countess of Wessex’s two children. He will be assisted by Alan Farthing, the former fiancé of murdered TV presenter Jill Dando and the Queen’s current gynaecologist.

William is expected to be at his wife’s bedside.

The birth will be accompanied by an element of theatre, with a notice informing the nation a new heir to the throne has been born placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.

The baby will be taken from the hospital and given a police escort to speed it through the streets of London to the Palace.

William will take paternity leave from his job as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot, thought to be two weeks.

But it is not known how long the Duchess will take off from her royal duties to care for her first child.