``Each couple wants their child to be special, so they're keen on delivering their child on January 1,'' says Dr Dhanu, who's been swamped with queries from at least a dozen couples in the last few days about methods of Caesarean and labour induction to deliver babies. Friday has as much significance as December 31 1999 has for party-goers across the world. For, if a tiny sperm fertilises an ovum this Friday, chances are that your child could be born at the dawn of the new millennium.

Dr Firuza Parikh, director, department of infertility management at the Jaslok hospital,has received queries from nearly 25 couples wanting to know how they could have babies on January 1. It almost reminds her of the stint in the US when local hospitals vied with each other to have the first baby of the year on December 31 at 12 midnight. ``We've not gone out of our way to help them,'' she says, adding in a cautionary note, ``This is just the beginning.''

In the meantime, her husband, Dr Rajesh Parikh, a neuro-psychiatrist at the Jaslok hospital, has been advising couples to take it easy. Couples who go in for In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) have greater chances of planning delivery, but, ``There is nothing to detract from the joy of having a baby, not even having one in the millennium,'' he says, adding that this could be just another of those unnecessary stressors that have a limiting factor on pregnancy. ``It's a social craze partially fuelled by speculation in the media, its best not to get caught up with it,'' he advises.

The scenario that's being painted among wannabe parents is asfollows: Viagra-fuelled orgies on April 9 followed by overcrowded maternity wards on December 31. The husband-wife team of Dr Aniruddh and Anjali Malpani, infertility experts, too have had their share of queries ranging from the curious cocktail party person to the dead-serious husband and wife.

``Couples ask us when they should plan their intercourse, we, of course, tell them the date is April 9,'' says Dr Aniruddh Malpani. For a woman to conceive on the magic April 9 date, a lot of factors have to click. Firstly, she should have had her last menstrual period on March 25, as the day she can get pregnant is 14 days after her period. Pregnancy lasts for 40 weeks, not the more commonly referred to nine months.

But there's less than a 20 per cent chance of having a baby on the exact date. `Don't be anxious if your baby doesn't show signs of arriving on the day you had planned. About 85 per cent of normal pregnancies are delivered within a week before or after the date predicted,' advises Dr MiriamStoppard's tome on Conception, Pregnancy and Birth. The good doctor probably hadn't anticipated the millennium-fuelled anxiety amongst a large number of parents. This is where artificial methods step in. The two commonest methods are the Caesarean section, and the induction of labour through drugs.

``Out of five women who ovulate and have intercourse on April 9, only one may deliver on January 1,'' Dr Malpani says. But for Indian couples, who've been delivering babies based on astrologer's charts, ever since these two methods were introduced, January 1 may just seem another date.