Bangalore, Jan 4 (DC): It’s not uncommon for people to want fancy car number plates or add an ‘a’ or an ‘e’ to their names for either good luck or the sheer fun of it. The fad usually invites a laugh or a nonchalant shrug. But when some new age parents begin insisting on fancy dates for the birth of their children and placing an ‘order’ for them with their gynaecologists, the response is often one of amazement among doctors and others who may have never heard of such a thing before.
A senior obstetrician and gynaecologist with The Cradle, Dr Prakash Kini, maintains he has never before seen this kind of persistence for fancy dates and strange timings for the birth of children, in all his 35 years in the medical profession.

“It is only since 2010 that I have seen this strange fixation for fancy birth dates among couples hoping to become parents. Some wanted 10-10-10 and now they are asking for 1-1-11 and so on ,” he observes. January 11 is, however, not very popular as it is a Tuesday and so considered inauspicious, he reveals. “Otherwise people are asking for their children to be born on dates and at the time of day or night suggested by astrologers and family priests,” Dr Kini deplores.

Dr Priya Gopal, a consultant gynaecologist, says doctors have a tough time explaining to parents that it is not possible to stretch the date or play around with the time of birth according to their whim and fancy as it could put both mother and child at risk. “Although they eventually understand and give in, it is tedious to do all the explaining,” she adds. Dr Manjula Devi,a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist with BGS Global Hospital, is also unhappy with the growing fascination to tailor the date and time of child birth as , in her view, this is burdening doctors with the extra responsibility of explaining how dangerous this can be.

“We have to tell them that the child may be born premature or mentally retarded if the date is played around with to such an extent,” she says.

Some even go so far as to ask for normal deliveries to take place at a prescribed time and on a date of their choice, leaving doctors dumbfounded. “We are often amused when some parents become fanatical about the date and time of even a normal birth, not realising that they cannot dictate something that follows its own natural course. They feel that since they are paying for the procedure they have a right to demand anything,” says Dr Shantala Chandran, consultant gynaecologist.

But what such couples don't seem to realise is that playing with nature is not condoned by several astrologers themselves. Ask astrologer S.K. Jain about the trend of couples trying to fix the date of their child’s birth and he says its wrong to tamper with the natural process of childbirth. “It is best to leave it to nature as it is only the natural birth time and date that really counts in astrology,” he says.