Royal birth plan! A detailed plan is in place for when pregnant Kate Middleton goes into labor. The palace staff is "on call every day and night in July for this," explains a palace insider to Us Weekly. "There is nothing left to prepare or plan for."
As soon as Prince William's wife feels her first contraction, she'll alert her private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who will then ring Middleton's doctor Marcus Setchell on his palace-issued mobile.
"It's an encrypted signal," says a source, "so there's no way anyone can intercept it." He'll then hop into his BMW 6 Series, throw a flashing green emergency beacon light on the roof, and drive the seven-mile, 26-minute route from his Muswell Hill, North London home to St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington.
With more than 180 photographers and journalists camped outside the hospital 24/7 as of July 8, the duchess will be swept through one of three side entrances into a suite in the fourth-floor Lindo Wing. The $1,500-a-night room — outfitted with WiFi and satellite TV — was sanitized and sealed off July 1 in preparation for her arrival, then monitored daily by security.
Once she's safely inside, the palace will release a statement announcing the imminent birth. If all goes according to plan, Middleton will deliver HRH Prince or Princess [name] of Cambridge naturally, with her husband at her side. The birth — with details about birth weight and gender — will then be announced with a framed notice just within the gates of Buckingham Palace. (The future monarch's name will be revealed at a later date.)
Middleton's due date was July 11, and the royal family is now anxiously awaiting the baby's arrival. "We are all just waiting by the telephone," Prince Charles' wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall said on July 15. "We are hopeful that by the end of the week he or she will be here."
