The Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted to hospital for the birth of her second child.
Kensington Palace confirmed she was admitted to the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s hospital, west London, in the early hours of Saturday.
The duchess and her husband, Prince William, do not know whether they are having a boy or a girl. The child will be the Queen’s fifth great-grandchild and the fourth in line to the throne.
The birth will be overseen by a medical team led by Guy Thorpe-Beeston, surgeon-gynaecologist to the royal household. Alan Farthing, surgeon gynaecologist to the Queen, will assist. Both medics were present at the birth of the Cambridges’ first child, Prince George, in July 2013.
Kensington Palace said: “Her royal highness the Duchess of Cambridge was admitted at 0600hrs to St Mary’s hospital, Paddington, London and is in the early stages of labour.
“The duchess travelled by car from Kensington Palace to the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s hospital with the Duke of Cambridge.”
The palace said “labour is progressing as normal”.
The Duchess is believed to be around one week overdue.
Eager to avoid the media circus that surrounded Prince George’s birth, the media were prevented from setting up camp outside the hospital until the official announcement that the duchess had been admitted.
News of the birth will be announced publicly only after the Queen and other close family members have been informed. Aides are then expected to make public thhe sex and weight of the child, as well as the time of the birth. Details will given via official Twitter accounts before a more formal announcement is later placed on an easel outside Buckingham Palace.
William, who is training to be an air ambulance pilot, has been no more than two hours’ drive from the hospital in the latter stages of his wife’s pregnancy, working from bases in Norwich, Cambridge and Gloucestershire.
The duchess will be given 10% off the Lindo Wing’s pricey fees as part of a loyalty discount to mothers who return to have a second child. Prices have increased since George was delivered in 2013; a suite of two rooms now costs £6,570 for a one-night stay with a normal delivery. In addition, there are consultant fees of about £6,000.
Parking restrictions outside the hospital’s entrance were imposed from 16 April in anticipation of media interest. Television crews, photographers and journalists have been discouraged from camping out around the clock as they did before George’s birth.
But such is the interest from global media organisations that barriers have again been erected outside the hospital to contain correspondents and photographers.
Royal sources have indicated that, after the birth, the couple intend to spend a few days at their London residence in Kensington Palace before decamping to Anmer Hall on the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Bookmakers have long been taking bets on names for the child, with Alice, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Victoria all popular if it is a girl, and James, Arthur and Alexander if it is a boy.
Recent changes to the laws governing succession mean that if it is a girl, for the first time it will remain ahead of any younger brother in the line of succession.
If the baby is a girl, she will be the first female born to the British royal family to take the title princess for 25 years and will also be the highest ranking female in line to the throne. A girl has not been born this high up the line of succession for nearly 65 years, since Princess Anne was born.
There has not been a Princess of Cambridge born for 182 years, the last being George III’s granddaughter Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, who was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1833.
