Kate Middleton in labour at London hospital (with video)

LONDON ? The ?Wait for Kate? may soon be over.

Buckingham Palace confirmed Monday that the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, went into labour between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. British time.

?Things are progressing normally,? Kensington Palace, the official residence of Prince William and Kate, reported in its third official update on the pregnancy early Monday afternoon. An earlier declaration indicated the birth had not been induced and that there had been no surgical intervention.

Neither Kate or Will are said to know the sex of their baby, who will become third in the line of succession. For the first time, that will be true whether it a boy or a girl, because of a change in British law.

Royal surgeons Marcus Setchell and Alan Farthing, as well as a midwife, were assisting with the birth.

Despite a massive media stakeout at the hospital, Kate and her husband were able to slip into the private obstetrics wing without attracting much notice. This is because like many Canadian hospitals, St. Mary?s is a sprawl of buildings connected by tunnels, overhead walkways and back alleys.

A single photographer Tweeted that he saw the royal couple arrive at one of the side entrances shortly before 6 a.m. local time. William was said to have been at the wheel of a black Range Rover for the 10-minute drive from Kensington Palace. A sole police vehicle, a black Audi, was reportedly driving close behind the couple?s car.

Once the royal baby arrives, the announcement that will follow will be carefully choreographed, tailored precisely to the wishes of Kate and William, but will also be in keeping with royal protocol. Queen Elizabeth be informed before anyone else. William is to tell Her Majesty using an encrypted telephone.

A courier from Buckingham Palace will receive a paper carrying details of the baby?s birth from medical staff at St. Mary?s. With police motorcycle outriders as escorts, the messenger will wend his way by road to the palace as a media pool helicopter follows overhead.

A liveried footman at the Palace will take the message from the courier. With a royal spokesman at his side, he will place the paper on a wooden easel in the palace forecourt, where passersby can read the news through the black grill fence.

This was exactly how the world found out that William was a boy on June 21, 1982. His weight was given at the time as seven pounds, 15 ounces. But he was not named. Prince William Arthur Philip Louis?s names were only revealed several days later.

In a new twist, after the birth is announced at the palace, it will be simultaneously tweeted by the royal family?s website.

On what was the hottest and muggiest day of the year in London (a high of 34 C was expected), television networks began broadcasting live shortly after dawn from outside St. Mary?s, where two London police constables stood in front of the main entrance. A small army of immaculately coiffed female reporters wearing pastel colours similar to those favoured by the Queen lined up in serried rows to send their live ?hits.? More than half of those reporting live from the scene worked forU.S. networks, who often behave as if the royal family belongs to them.

?We?re getting there,? said Terry Hutt, who was resplendent in a new suit in the colours of the Union Jack and looking fresh despite sleeping outside the hospital for nearly three weeks.

The 78-year-old husband, father and grandfather is perhaps the most well known of the fanatical super monarchists who follow the royal family to almost every public event. The retired carpenter and soldier reckoned that it was a thunder clap in the middle of the night that ?woke the baby up and got things moving.?

?Where Kate has been getting hot flashes, I?m getting butterflies,? Hutt said, quoting an all British saying.

All Hutt wished for, he said, ?was a healthy baby.?

The Queen may see the baby before she leaves at the weekend for Balmoral Castle in Scotland for her annual summer holiday. Her son and William?s father, Prince Charles, was touring a railway museum in York in northern England on Monday.

When Princess Diana gave birth to William 31 years ago in the same ward, her labour took 16 hours. It is generally thought that first births take longer for a new mother than they do for mothers having the second child.

William was shown to the world on the steps of the Lindo Wing one day after his birth. It is expected that the same formula will be followed this time, barring medical complications.

A live stream of the Lindo wing is embedded below:

As for what the name of the new royal will be, the current favourite with punters is Alexandra, like the Danish born wife and queen of King Edward VII. More wagers have been placed on the baby being a princess, rather than a prince.

For the first time it won?t matter to the succession, as girls can now become monarch even if a brother is born later.

Kate, who is six months older than her husband, has not been seen in public since mid-June. She spent the last few weeks at her parents mansion an hour away by car from the capital in Berkshire. But she and Will returned to London late Friday.

He has been on annual leave since last week from his job as a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot. He will begin two weeks of state-mandated paternity leave from the moment the baby is born.

Kate went into labour just as the British newspapers has seemed to run out of colour features to run. The most interesting royal story on Sunday wasn?t even about the royal baby. It was that Prince Harry may return to Afghanistan for a third and last army tour next spring. An Apache attack helicopter pilot, he has recently passed the tests to be a crew commander.

The Sunday Times had a scholarly piece on primogeniture and Britain?s Succession to the Crown Act, which for the first time permits a first-born daughter to become Queen even if a son is born later. A dozen Commonwealth countries have not passed such laws themselves, meaning that theoretically, different countries could end up with different sovereigns.

Canada was one of three countries that had adopted the change, the Times said. But Ottawa was faulted because its decision simply gave assent to the British law, rather than having passed a law of its own.

Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F233/~3/JHHN-BafYPw/story.html

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