Reading in the Middle of the Night Continues

Tue, 10/05/2010 - 07:38 — Roanman

From the Wall Street Journal.

Click anywhere below to link up the story.

When the Stars Align, Indians Say, It's a Good Time to Have a C-Section

Moms-to-Be Consult Their Astrologers, Request the Operation on Auspicious Days

By ERIC BELLMAN

MUMBAI—Ruchira Varmaa's marriage was already in trouble when she found out she was pregnant. She didn't know what to do, so, as with most life decisions, she consulted her astrologer.

Ms. Varmaa and her child would be fine, the astrologer said, as long as the baby was born on one of three mahurats, or auspicious days, near her due date. She then did what doctors say an increasing number of middle-class Indians are doing these days: She scheduled a caesarean section in order to nail that good-luck date.

The perfectly timed birth not only gave her a wonderful daughter, Ms. Varmaa says, but also got her own life back on track. Her career and health have improved and her brief, arranged marriage has ended in an amicable divorce.

"I didn't want my bad luck to affect the child," says Ms. Varmaa, 34 years old, a director for a clothing exporter in Mumbai. "If the position of the sun and moon are right, then the baby has a good life and even the mother's life improves."

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