Royal baby countdown as Princess Madeleine prepares to give birth

Princess Madeleine will give birth to her third child in March, the Swedish Royal Court has announced.

This means the Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland will welcome her newest addition just weeks ahead of the Duchess of Cambridge, who is due in April.

The Princess has returned to Sweden from her home in London, where she lives with her American-British financier husband Christopher O'Neill, in preparation for the birth.

"The Princess is doing well, but the birth may not be entirely straightforward," Swedish palace spokeswoman Margaret Thorgren told Swedish journal Svenskdam.

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"The birth is scheduled for March and the princess will be home in Stockholm next week with her family,” she added, noting the birth has been in the planning for some time but information is only just being made public.

The mother-of-two first announced she was expecting again on her Facebook page in August, saying the family of four were looking forward to becoming five.

However, in December Princess Madeleine suffered from acute back pain following a flight from London to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize celebrations and has cancelled a number of public appearance since.

The couple are already parents two young children - Princess Leonore and Prince Nicolas, who are three and two respectively. And while the young Prince was born in Sweden, his older sister arrived in New York.

Madeline, 35, and Christopher, 43, aren't the only Swedish Royals with new additions to their family.

LISTEN: Get all the latest MAFS goss and behind-the-scenes chatter with 9Honey's Shelly Horton. (Post continues.)

Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princess Sofia welcomed a baby boy, their second son, in August. Prince Gabriel is a younger brother to one-year-old Prince Alexander.

Meanwhile, eldest of the three siblings, Crown Princess Victoria and her personal trainer husband Prince Daniel also have two children.

Princess Estelle, five, and Prince Oscar, one, were recently seen during the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to Sweden in a sweet meeting.

Princess Madeleine passed on the opportunity to meet her British counterparts while they were visiting, with the palace saying it was on account of her pregnancy.