Kate Middleton Due Date: Duchess's Maternity Leave Starts Next Week

Reports have surfaced that the royal palace will allow Kate Middleton to take maternity leave beginning June 13, as reported by The Mirror.

An anonymous insider recently spoke to the newspaper on Sunday.

"Kate has really enjoyed her job and wanted to work as close to the birth date as possible," the source said to The Mirror. "She takes her royal role very seriously and is looking forward to taking up her duties when her maternity leave has finished."

According to the Huffington Post, royal mothers with newborns have taken time off from their duties in the past, as Middleton is predicted to do, but Prince William's mother Princess Diana eschewed the tradition when she brought her son along on a royal tour of Australia in March 1983 when the prince was just eight months old.

"Whereas the Queen was left in England with her nanny for weeks at a time when her parents embarked on lengthy overseas tours," the Telegraph wrote, "the prospect of the Duke and Duchess's baby being left behind would be unthinkable in the 21st century."

June 13 will reportedly mark the Duchess's "last official engagement," as she is scheduled to christen a new cruise ship at a naming ceremony. Middleton will attend the naming ceremony in Southampton, where she will say a few words and then pull a lever that will shoot a bottle of champagne against the ship, as per tradition.

In 1984, Princess Diana christened the very first Royal Princess ship in a chic red suit and matching cap. 

Middleton is taking precautions to ensure a healthy pregnancy, though there may not be any royal baby sightings until 2014 at the earliest, the Huffington Post adds, unless the Duchess plans to take her newborn along with her on a trip abroad to the U.S. 

The Duchess is due to give birth to the royal baby on July 13.