George of Wales

The first child of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is due to be born on 13 July 2013.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] The Washington Post described it as "the world’s most famous baby".^[6]

Pregnancy

St Mary's Hospital, London, where the baby is expected to be born

On 3 December 2012, St James's Palace announced that the Duchess was pregnant with her first child. The announcement was made earlier in the pregnancy than is traditional because she had been admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital Sister Agnes suffering from a hyperemesis gravidarum where she remained for three days.^[7]^[8] On 14 January, St James's Palace announced that the child is due to be born in July 2013 and that the Duchess's condition is improving.^[9]

According to officials, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have chosen not to find out the sex of their child prior to the birth.^[1]^[10] The birth is expected to take place in the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, London – the same hospital in which Prince William and his brother, Prince Harry, were born to Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1982 and 1984 respectively. The Queen's former gynaecologist, Marcus Setchell, is expected to deliver the child by natural childbirth.^[1]^[10] Following the birth, an official announcement signed by medical staff will be delivered to the Buckingham Palace central gates, most likely under police escort.^[1]^[11] No public statement will be issued until the Queen, senior members of the royal family and the Duchess of Cambridge's family have been informed about the birth.^[10] The event is expected to generate £260 million worldwide, mostly from tourism, souvenirs, and birth-related festivities.^[6] The Duke and Duchess are expected to move into their Kensington Palace apartment with their child in the autumn, following its £1m refurbishment as a family home.^[12]

Reactions

The then Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard, despite advocating the abolition of the monarchy in Australia, was photographed knitting a toy kangaroo for the unborn prince or princess.^[6] Members of the Monarchist League of Canada have been asking for "significant monuments to be lit up in blue or pink, such as Toronto's CN Tower or Niagara Falls", to mark the impending birth.^[6] In response to the increasing public interest in the event, the Museum of London opened an exhibition of royal infant clothes and memorabilia on 28 June 2013.^[13]

Title and style

In January 2013, Queen Elizabeth II, the grandmother of the Duke of Cambridge, issued new letters patent enabling all children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales to enjoy the princely title and style of Royal Highness, as opposed to only the eldest son.^[14] The child will therefore be a prince or a princess of the United Kingdom with the style Royal Highness.^[15] Following the custom of royal babies born to princes that hold a royal dukedom, the child will likely be styled Prince/Princess (Name) of Cambridge. The child, regardless of sex, will be third in the line of succession to the thrones of sixteen independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, The Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, behind Prince William's father, Charles, Prince of Wales, and Prince William himself.^[10]