Science and technology
Medicine and astrology
Auspicious C-sections
Feb 15th 2012, 18:09 by A.A. | HYDERABAD
SAHANA has just celebrated her first birthday. She was born on February 4th, 2011, at 1.45pm. But it was not fate that brought her into the world at that precise moment. Rather, the time was calculated by a Hindu priest a month in advance. "You want the best for your child and this is just another precaution," says Sahana’s mother, Supriya Damera. Her obstetrician, Pranathi Reddy, is familiar with such requests. She timed the Caesarean section so the baby would emerge, head first, at the prescribed hour. That day was so auspicious, Dr Reddy recalls, that she and her obstetrics team performed nearly ten C-sections between 9.30am and 10am.
If, indeed, fate is the product of infinite variables, Hindus believe that some can be tweaked by picking subha muhurtha, as the lucky windows are known in Sanskrit. They marry, start a new job or set off on journeys on good days of the week. They buy gold, scooters, cars and homes at the right time of the year to invite prosperity. Politicians and film-makers seek astrologers' advice to improve their chances at the ballot box or box-office. Businessmen have been known to issue IPOs after consulting the Hindu calendar because there is no earthly way to predict the vagaries of the market.
Now Hindu families have taken to timing the birth of their children to brighten the child’s prospects—of joining India’s elite civil service, say, or finding a suitable spouse. Dr Reddy says over 80% of the mothers she sees want to give birth at an auspicious time if theirs is a planned Caesarean delivery. Those who plump for induced labour also plan ahead. Then there are families who consciously choose a Caesarean section to ensure the child is born at the right moment. Dr Reddy recalls a Hindu couple from America who decided to have their baby in India because their obstetrician back home would not let them schedule the birth. Apparently, an astrologer had predicted that the boy would grow up to be an emperor if born at the chosen time.
Technology has spurred the trend. Rising incomes and a thriving health-care industry have pushed up the rate of Caesarean births in urban India, from 7% in 1993 to 17% in 2006, according to a study conducted for the Economic and Political Weekly. And a booming mobile-phone market—India has over 500m subscribers—makes peddling astrology easier than ever before. Indians can ring an astrologer directly. Alternatively, countless astrology apps or other software churn out lists of auspicious times closest to the due date. A report by Trak, a business blog, estimates that astrology is the second most popular text-message service used by India’s urban mobile subscribers. (Ironically, the first is jokes.)
Dr Reddy says that many obstetricians discourage couples from seeking subha muhurtha if it means putting the child's or mother's health at risk. If not, though, "I have no objection," she says. Besides, Hindus aren’t the only superstitious types timing the birth of their babies. China is expecting a 5% increase in births in 2012. It is, after all, the year of the dragon.
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Last year I had gone to visit my cousin's new born baby in a hospital in Kerala. There was an incident in that hospital the same day, the woman who was in the same ward as my cousin lost her kid. The delivery date for the woman was the day prior, which was on the nakshathra "pooradam" which is considered to be bad for the family. So they requested the doctor to do the surgery very next day morning. But by night the pressure built up and the fluid was lost, and the doctors couldn't save the kid even though they tried their max. I was not sad at their loss, it is something they invited because of their superstition.
I place the belief in astrology right up there with the belief that humans are responsible for Global Warming.
I could be wrong, but I think I've read that some early studies show that c-section birth babies have increased risk of health problems later in life. Whether or not its early (induced) or during normal labor.
Evolution has something in mind for putting a baby though the vaginal canal and its environment. C-section births are medical emergency miracles. Not natural miracles.
Babbage strikes again! His/her articles fit the editorial policy: Anything which represents Indians as slow, corrupt and superstitious goes in. Anything which represents Indians as dynamic forward thinking and deeply moral is probably rejected as not following the empire line. Very boring.
Ironical that income levels are rising which hopefully implies that educational levels are also rising. Sadly, stupidity levels remain just the same. (By the way, I'm an Indian writing this.)
Put away the bias and superstition arguments. Let's be scientific about this. What is required is a 30 year follow up study to check on the progress and development of these children. Compare relative prosperity and acheivement vs a representative sample of other children from similar socio-economic backgrounds born at unauspicious times.
Um - their parents can afford non-emergency C-sections with a highly qualified obstetrician and clearly care enough to spend money trying to do what's best for the kids (however stupid the rationale). Makes control groups rather difficult to find in a third-world poverty-stricken country, no?
How many times have you been to India, that you are sure control groups can't be formed for this experiment in a huge and diverse country like India
Now take my advice kid: Get outta ur armchair in Timbuktu, open your eyes and "see" the real world... u might see things have changed a lot since you last did!
The point I was trying to make, is that it is far too easy to dismiss challenging ideas as bunkum without having sufficient evidence to back up that statement. That, effectively makes such a dismissal as equally superstititious as the initial idea may have been in the first place.
In the current climate, reported this weekend, of anti-scientific activity by politicians and corporations it is increasingly important to be aware of how and why a particular opinion is held.
However, to address your specific point - India is one of the most active and positive economies in the world at present.
So, I'm pretty sure there are sufficient affluent Hindi to build a control group. It may also be the case that another control set would be sufficient. It depends on your experimental design and that, in turn, depends on the initial hypothesis you want to test.
In this case the hypothesis is that the date and time you are born will materially affect your prospects in life. This could, actually, be done as a prospective or a retrospective study. Furthermore, it does not, necessarily, mandate an equivalent socio-cultural-economic control match.
I'm not an experimental sociologist - so I'll leave that as an exercise for someone else.
I never cease to be amazed by the things people will do, based on belief. Somedays, i think i should start a church. It's such a a good business; endless demand!
i think if you are in US of A. we have lot wired church choice depending how wired your superstition. Let me name few.. a) baptist b) south baptist c) Mormon btw there is Church who still believes in roman Caesar divinity it's call Catholic church, or you can start yours..
i am sure God looked at stars when delivering a virgin birth!
The more promise you expect from India, the more backward it regresses. Apparently education in India means just to know reading/writing accounts for multinationals. It doesn't entail rational thinking.
Probably no worse than having the timing of your Caesarean determined by your obstetrician's tee-time.
getting a c-section done in 3 minutes is pretty impressive, well done Dr. Reddy!
Yuck.
Superstition.
Reminds me of yesterday's apology by the Mormon Church for baptizing Jews posthumously. They do this every now and then because it keeps happening. It's played up as a big deal: they're baptizing Jews!!! But the real thing is they're insulting living Jews, not that they're doing something to the dead. They can't do anything to or for the dead. The post-humous baptism is a total crock of worthless superstition. But the story gets played up as though there's some meaning in it other than insensitivity.
Same with this: there's nothing in the auspicious time. Nothing.
btw stars & planet are more real than Christ..they may not have positive outcome, but same is true for going to Church or praying 5 times a day!
Instead of attending to childbirths 24/7/365, obstetricians also want a predictable schedule.
Now birth can be turned on like a switch with hormonal induction of vasopressin IV.
Now most births occur on Monday or Tuesday morning when every is fresh, it's the first workday, and the hospital is fully staffed.
Babies used to be born 7 days a week. Now the births are largely clustered on weekday mornings. And everyone is born in birth group cohorts like a production line.
Fewer and fewer weekend babies as they are too inconvenient.
And more and more fertility twins and triplets.
And there is almost no surprise; the parents know the sex, twin status, expected birthday and even expected birth weight.
And the newborn already has a photo album collection, email account, and Facebook Membership. That's your birth video on Youtube! Hi Mom!