Gwyneth takes the plunge

Gwyneth Paltrow is well known for her holistic approach to life. She pursues a teetotal lifestyle and, together with her husband Chris Martin, sticks to a macrobiotic diet designed to boost her immune system and energy levels by balancing her "yin and yang".

Now the 31-year-old actress is taking the same approach to the imminent arrival of her first child - and wants to have a water birth.

Paltrow, who is six months pregnant, has installed a birthing tank at her Belgravia home.

The actress has also been seeking pre-natal advice from a natural birth consultant in St John's Wood. While she has yet to make final plans, it is understood that if she is unable to have the baby at home she will enter the St John and St Elizabeth Hospital in St John's Wood, a popular choice with celebrity mothers.

Paltrow has been making regular visits to the hospital to see a doctor specialising in natural birthing techniques.

The natural birthing specialist and Paltrow's osteopath have visited her flat and the star is said by friends to have been "getting in practice" for the birth.

She has decided to have the baby in London, despite advice from her close friend Madonna that British hospitals are "too old and Victorian".

Paltrow has also installed a birthing pool at her mother Blyth Danner's house in LA, but London is the most likely location for the birth. The actress arrived at the St John and St Elizabeth's hospital in her chauffeur-driven Range Rover at the weekend for a check-up. Sources indicate the pregnancy is going well.

Paltrow decided on the £740-anight hospital after her friends Sadie Frost, Stella McCartney and Kate Moss recommended it.

Moss, Frost and McCartney's stepmother Heather Mills McCartney all recently gave birth at the £740-a-night hospital. It costs around £4,500 to give birth at St John and St Elizabeth's, which provides an alternative approach to birth with mothers able to listen to whale music and float in birthing pools.

Paltrow and Martin have also been looking for a larger family home in the capital .