For most mums-to-be antenatal classes, midwife visits and packing a hospital bag is all we can manage in the final days of pregnancy. So how do celebrities get to this stage and still manage red carpets and trips to The Ivy?

At home
These days, giving birth at The Portland Hospital or at London and LA's Cedars Sinai Medical Center is like spending a night at The Ritz.

But more celebrities are avoiding the paparazzi lenses and opting for a quieter birth. So what better place to dodge the flash bulbs than having a celebrity baby at home with a team of midwives on call. Many celebrity mums have favoured the natural way. Demi Moore, Cindy Crawford and Davina McCall have all given birth at home three times.

And it's not unlike celebs to withdraw from the spotlight and move back to their roots for the delivery. Nelly Furtado gave birth to her first child, Nevis, back at home in Toronto and Charlotte Church gave birth in her native Cardiff.

Pamela Anderson had her two boys, Brandon and Dylan, 'back at the ranch'. She said: 'I gave birth at home both times, naturally, with a midwife, in water, with nothing.'

In silence
Scientology is the 'fashionable' religion in Hollywood, endorsed by new dad Tom Cruise. And controversially, silent labours are one of the beliefs followers hold. So when Scientologist Kelly Preston, John Travolta's wife, gave birth to their daughter Ella her lips were sealed.

She said it was 'just a peaceful, beautiful entry into this earth', but speculation suggests she may have lapsed at one point and is reported to have shouted, 'throw me in the car! I want an epidural!'

With a guru
Available for a mere £5,000 a pop, South African obstetrician Yehudi Gordon is famed for his laid back approach to labour. He encourages his celebrity patients to take control of the birth with yoga or in a birthing pool.

London's St John and St Elizabeth Hospital where he practices has seen many a tinted-screen limo pull up outside. Heather Mills, Kate Moss, Cate Blanchett, Jerry Hall, Emma Thompson and Elle McPherson all gave birth in the hands of this renowned birthing guru. Gordon reportedly performs his caesarean section operations under candlelight.

Harley Street midwife and natural health practitioner Zita West, has worked as a birth guru to Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Sophie Wessex, Davina McCall and Ulrika Johnson. She uses methods such as acupuncture for treating common ailments in pregnancy.

She said: 'They all love my Vital Essence pregnancy nutritional supplements because the vitamins and minerals included adapt for each trimester of pregnancy. My "comfort down under" cream is also very popular!'

With the 'gentle birth' method
London's celebrity set have also been arriving in their droves at the North London clinic of Gowri Motha. Her birthing method, Jeyarani, concentrates on making lifestyle changes before birth with diet, exercise and treatments throughout the pregnancy. 'Labour is not something you can turn up and do. You have to train for it,' explains Gowri Motha.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Sadie Frost and Donna Air are just a few of those who have opted for the Reiki, Reflexology and Indian Ayurvedic detox herbs and homeopathic tissue salts that Motha prescribes her mums-to-be. She also helps patients combat labour pains with self-hypnosis.

With her latest project, advising on the sexy Agent Provocateur maternity lingerie range, she is further raising her celebrity street cred.

In a bath tub
Back in the eighties it was 'active birth' guru Yehudi Gordon who introduced water births to the UK. Now we can't get enough of them and the NHS embraces the idea.

Celebrities are also taking the plunge in labour. Talk show host Ricki Lake gave birth to son Owen in her own bath. Natural mums Kate Winslet, Pamela Anderson and mum-of-four Sadie Frost have also given birth in water.

The place to be seen
For celebrities there is always an 'in' bar or club so why should it be any different when it comes to a maternity ward?

Cedars Sinai Medical Center is the place for true A-listers to give birth. Madonna gave birth to Rocco in 2000 and more recently, Katie Holmes' daughter Suri, Britney Spears second boy Sutton Pierce and Julia Roberts' twins Phinnaeus and Hazel were born there.

Gwyneth Paltrow opted to have her son Moses by Caesarean section after a strenuous natural birth with daughter Apple in the New York's Mount Sinai Hospital last year.

And P Diddy dropped his busy filming schedule in Toronto in February, to fly to Mount Sinai by private jet to be at Kim Porter's side for the birth of their identical twins girls, D'Lila Star and Jessie James.