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Kate Middleton doesn't know if the Royal baby will be a boy or a girl

Duchess to give birth naturally (and doesn't know if it's a boy or girl).

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The Duchess of Cambridge plans to give birth naturally rather than having a caesarean section, royal aides have disclosed. The future monarch will be born in the private Lindo wing of St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, where the Duke of Cambridge was born. He hopes to be with his wife throughout the delivery.

However, he could face a race to be at the birth. The Duke does not plan to take any time off before the delivery, so he could be 300 miles away in Anglesey when the Duchess goes into labour. St James's Palace has moved to end speculation over the gender of the baby by insisting the Duke and Duchess have chosen not to be told the sex of their child until it is born.

Aides confirmed that Marcus Setchell, 69, the Queen's former gynaecologist, will deliver the baby, assisted by the Queen's gynaecologist Alan Farthing, 50, the former fiance of Jill Dando, the murdered BBC presenter.

Asked whether the Duchess had opted for an elective caesarean birth, Palace sources said she intended to give birth naturally. Claims that the Duchess planned to use hypnotherapy to ease the pain of delivery are understood to be wide of the mark.

The Duke planned to take only two weeks statutory paternity leave before he returned to the RAF search and rescue squadron in Wales, the sources said. The Duchess is expected to stay either at Kensington Palace or with her parents in Berkshire before her due date in mid-July. She will not spend any time in Wales.

Contingency plans have been put in place with the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in case the Duchess goes into labour unexpectedly while visiting her parents. The first indication that the Duchess has given birth will come when an aide leaves the hospital carrying a piece of paper with details of the baby's sex, weight and time of birth. The note will be relayed to Buckingham Palace, where it will be placed on an easel.

The news will then be put out on the Palace's Twitter feed. Aides said no electronic communication would be made until the official notice was released. "It's important this is done with a degree of dignity and with half an eye on the historical significance," they said. No announcement of the birth will be made until after the Queen, other senior members of the Royal family, and the Middleton family have been informed. If the Duchess gives birth at night no announcement is likely until the Queen has woken.

Bookies have taken a stream of bets that the baby is a boy after the Duchess was reported to have bought a blue pram. However, a royal source said: "The Duke and Duchess don't know the sex of the baby and they have decided not to find out beforehand." ----- The presence on Anglesey of the Duke and Duchess is worth 22 million pounds a year to the island economy, the local council claims. Since the couple moved to north Wales in 2011 visitor numbers have increased by 9%. Iwan Huws, the county council's head of tourism, said there had been a marked increase in American visitors.

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