Meanwhile the Duke of Cambridge should be getting up in the night to make his wife cups of tea, taking responsibility for mealtimes and taking Prince George into the bath with him, the book recommends.
But now is also the time when the Duchess might suddenly become inexplicably weepy if, like the majority of new mothers, she experiences the “four-day blues”.
The Duchess attended private ante-natal classes with Christine Hill, who gave her a copy of her book A Perfect Start – Coping With the First Months of Parenthood, as she does all her clients.
Mrs Hill is an advocate of rest and relaxation for new mothers, saying plenty of sleep is “imperative” for them.
She says in her book: “Try to carry on wearing night-gear and be in or around your bed for the first few days after coming home, however wonderful and exuberant you may feel.
“This will remind other people that you have just had a baby and are not in any way back to normal…trying to demonstrate to the world that you have not been affected in any way by giving birth is a ridiculous idea.”
The Duke of Cambridge will have a big part to play in achieving this, her book suggests.
Mothers who breast-feed are likely to feel thirsty and peckish in the night, and: “The perfect man will wake with you for feeds, and can usefully bring you up a cup of tea as required. Make the most of all this; it is not guaranteed to last, especially when he is back at work.”
If the baby refuses to settle after his feed, “his father should pick him up and walk him round for 15 minutes or so rubbing his back”.
Mrs Hill also recommends day-time naps for mothers, adding: “Your husband must try to ensure you do get as much sleep as possible, so at some stage during the day, he should take the baby downstairs and out of your earshot so that you can sleep undisturbed. He needs to unplug/turn off the phones, and think about putting a Post-it note on the front door asking callers not to ring the bell…
“He should answer the door, take the phone calls and organise the meals.”
And when it time for Prince George’s bath, “the easiest and most fun way to bath a baby is to put him in the adult bath with his father”.
In truth, the Duchess' mother, Carole Middleton, is likely to be sharing the burden of such chores, particularly the cooking, as the couple are staying at the Middleton family home in Bucklebury, Berks.
Just over half of all new mothers experience the blues four days after they give birth – the stage the Duchess is currently at. This is thought to be caused by a fall in levels of the hormone progesterone.
Mrs Hill says that mothers “find themselves in tears for trivial reasons…self-esteem plummets to an all-time low.
“This is not the real you. Nor is this postnatal depression. In fact, it isn’t really depression at all but a short-lived state of emotional turmoil which passes after a few days and needs no medical treatment.”
The Duchess, who proudly displayed her post-pregnancy bump in a bespoke Jenny Packham dress when she left hospital, will have been warned what to expect, as the book says that after delivery “the bulge will not yet have gone and you may appear at least three (often six) months pregnant. The skin on your tummy will look like orange peel or rumpled crepe paper”.
Once mothers are back on their feet, the best way to get back to a flat tummy is to “concentrate on holding your lower tummy muscles in while you are standing and walking. This will restore the elasticity of the muscles…don’t cover up a pot belly with a baggy sweater so that you forget about it – wear something that continually reminds you to hold your tummy in”.
Mrs Hill also has a piece of advice for parents who are tempted to hold large family get-togethers of the sort the Duke and Duchess may be contemplating if they visit Balmoral over the summer.
“The last thing [babies] want at this stage is to be passed around a circle of admirers who all want a cuddle, or over-stimulated by parents entering them for the developmental Olympics,” she says.
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