11/11/11: Cashing in on a Designer Birthday

Today is 11/11/11, kind of an awesome (and easy to remember) date for a planned occasion like a wedding, or even a trickier-to-plan event like a birth. Indeed, Iowa obstetrician Ross Valone has offered to refund fees to his patients who give birth on this palindromic day, reports the Des Moines Register. The fee, which can run from $900 to $2,000, will be deposited into a bank account in the baby’s name. The money can be accessed upon the child’s 21^st birthday.

Dr. Valone announced the offer back in February, precisely nine months ago. He is scheduled to perform two C-sections, but he says he may also have two other induced births by the day’s end, for women who have reached full term in their pregnancies.

Plus: Hospital Bans Elective C-Sections and Labor Inductions

Expectant moms in Des Moines aren’t the only women eager to give birth on this special day, though. Hospitals in large Indian cities like New Delhi and Mumbai have been flooded with requests from middle-class mothers who insisted on giving birth today, according to the UK’s Telegraph.

"We had many requests from expecting mothers, who wanted to deliver their babies on 11/11/11 as they consider it to be an auspicious day," explained Dr. Madhu Goel, a gynecologist at New Delhi's Rockland Hospital.

Plus: Study: Women Avoid Giving Birth on Halloween

And in South Korea, the number of appointments for scheduled C-section births on November 11th this year was up 20% from the previous years, reports Reuters. 

How do you feel about designer birthdays? Would you induce labor or plan a c-section just to have your child born on a special day?