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World's eyes will be on royal baby

From the cradle to the crown, every step the new royal baby takes will be the subject of fascination the world over.

But how will the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge temper the media interest in the future Head of State with the desire to protect their child's privacy?

Royal historian Dr Kate Williams suggests it will be difficult for William and Kate to deal with the baby mania that follows the birth.

“We live in a global media. (The baby's) going to have a lot of attention,” says Williams.

“It's going to be difficult. They see themselves as private individuals and there was a time when William had a lot of privacy. He’ll want to go back to that and unfortunately he can't.”

Jennie Bond, the former BBC royal correspondent, says William will be “quite obsessive” in shielding his baby from the press.

As a child, shy William disliked the media and hid behind his blond floppy fringe in front of the cameras. Then when he was just 15, his mother was killed in a Paris car crash while being pursued by the paparazzi.

Bond says: “I suspect that William particularly will be quite obsessive about privacy for his baby.”

She told ITV's Royal Babies programme: “I think he will wrap his child not only in a bubble of love but in as secure a bubble of privacy as he possibly can.”

Kate has already experienced at first hand the intrusion that can come with being a member of the Royal Family. She was photographed topless while on holiday with William, and also snapped in her bikini while pregnant. Such experiences will have no doubt intensified the Cambridges' desire to protect their child.

Royal writer Christopher Warwick thinks William and Kate will seek some kind of agreement with the media to ensure their baby's privacy.

While William was at university, the press agreed to leave him in peace in return for interviews and photographs a certain number of times a year.

Warwick explained that the same sort of understanding was likely in relation to William and Kate's child.

“I think there will be agreements in place simply because William knows that worked when he was up at St Andrews,” he says.

Warwick believes there will have to be a “careful balancing act” in how the press is dealt with. “We know that it took William a very, very long time to become media friendly. We know very well the reasons for it. William realises that you can be protective to a certain degree but you can't just have a blanket refusal to co-operate with the media.

“There’s absolutely no doubt they will be as protective as they possibly can over media access. From their point of view, it’s got to be a careful balancing act.”

Warwick says the couple will have to be prepared for the paparazzi to succeed in taking pictures of their baby.

“The recent stink of Kate being photographed... that sort of thing is going to happen and they've got to be grown-up enough to realise it's going to happen. They’ve got to realise that there may be paparazzi shots of the baby.

“There were photographs of Prince Charles being taken out in his pram with his nanny and just one bowler-hatted detective but all of that has changed. The media will want to get what it can get.”

William and Kate could follow the lead of Swedish royals Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel, who released a series of 10 informal photos taken at home to mark their daughter Princess Estelle's first birthday.

The pictures showed the little princess eating birthday cake, blowing out her candle and laughing and cuddling with her parents.

The Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy has been overseen by the Queen's gynaecologist Alan Farthing, the former fiancé of murdered TV presenter Jill Dando. Farthing, who has been a doctor for 26 years, works at Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, and St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London.

He became the Queen's gynaecologist, taking over care of royal mothers, in September 2008. The consultant gynaecologist, who qualified at St George's Hospital Medical School in Tooting, south London, also works privately at King Edward VII's Hospital, The Wellington Hospital in north London, St Mary's Lindo Wing and Harley Street.

He is a specialist in fertility sparing surgery, keyhole surgery, gynaecological cancers and endometriosis.

Farthing was engaged to popular BBC presenter Ms Dando when she was shot and killed in April 1999. He found love again after meeting fellow doctor Janet Stowell. They married in 2008 and have a young son.

In caring for Kate, Farthing worked alongside his predecessor Marcus Setchell, who was the Queen’s gynaecologist for two decades and delivered the Countess of Wessex’s two children.

Setchell looked after Kate when she was taken to hospital with severe morning sickness in the early stages of her pregnancy.

In 2003, he helped save the lives of Sophie and her eldest child Lady Louise Windsor. The Countess was rushed to hospital after complaining of severe internal pains when she was eight months' pregnant.

Lady Louise was the first grandchild of the Queen to be born on the NHS.

In 2004, Setchell was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), a prestigious honour in the Queen's personal gift.

The Duchess of Cambridge will follow recent royal tradition and have her baby at the exclusive Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in London. She could opt for a range of “bespoke care packages”.

Her husband the Duke of Cambridge and his brother Prince Harry were both born in the private wing in Paddington, west London.

William made his public debut at one day old with his parents outside the hospital, wrapped in a white blanket carried in the arms of his father the Prince of Wales with his mother Diana, Princess of Wales at his side.

The Lindo has been a popular birthplace for royal children over the years. Peter and Zara Phillips were both born in the wing and Princess Michael of Kent and the Duchess of Gloucester also gave birth there.

Fully refurbished in 2012, the wing is described as having provided “leading private obstetric and neonatal care for 60 years”.

It has private en suite rooms designed to provide “comfort and privacy”. Deluxe rooms and suites are also available.

A normal delivery package including a one-night stay costs £4,965, with an extra night in a deluxe room costing £1,050, plus consultant’s fees which can come to around £6,000, depending on the care required, meaning a two-night stay can cost more than £12,000.

A suite of two rooms, with one used as a living room, costs £6,265 for a one-night stay with normal delivery and £2,200 for each extra night, meaning a two-night stay, with consultant fees of an estimated £6,000, would cost around £14,465.

Each room has a satellite TV with major international channels, a radio, a safe, a bedside phone and a fridge.

The wing also offers a “comprehensive wine list should you wish to enjoy a glass of Champagne and toast your baby’s arrival”.

Postnatal rooms come with a fully reclining chair for partners who want to stay.

They receive a free breakfast in the morning and visiting hours are flexible.

The Lindo Wing’s internationally renowned obstetric unit caters for complex pregnancies and deliveries, as well as multiple births.

The wing also has the benefit of being based in an NHS hospital if further complications arise, including its facilities for premature babies in the Winnicott Baby Unit.

In 2006, William visited the refurbished NHS neonatal unit at St Mary's, cradling two tiny premature babies – one weighing just 5lb.

Diana returned to St Mary's in April 1997 – four months before her death in a Paris car crash – when she toured the paediatric intensive care unit, meeting poorly youngsters.

William’s great-grandmother, the Queen Mother, was the honorary president of St Mary’s.