According to some medical pundits and reproductive experts, Friday, April 9, is the D-day -- or Do-It Date -- to produce the Millennium Baby. Of course, this assumes that the female partner is ovulating on this day and the human gestation period is 38 weeks (266 days) -- both very iffy factors.

For years, the first baby of the new year in Western countries has been celebrated with free publicity on the evening local news, a picture on the front page of the local newspaper, and freebies from local stores.

But this one is going to be different. Baby2000 will not only get a place in history, but also bonanzas beyond conception. Already, tabloids from San Francisco to Sao Paolo are lining up megabuck prizes; a Canadian company, which has officiallytrademarked the term `Official Millennium Baby,' has offered a $ 2-million prize for the first child born in North America; and, a Texas radio station is offering Baby2000 a full college scholarship.

This is just the beginning. Mugs, T-shirts, stickers, assorted souvenirs, comic strips, movies... well, the works are in the works.

All that, of course, is at the end of the race. Right now, people are going to extraordinary lengths to score. And there is plenty of help at hand.

The San Francisco-based BabyCenter Online store is offering a $ 49.99 Millennium Conception Kit. Contents? A calendar, a best-selling fertility guide, a ovulation predictor, a pregnancy test kit, calcium supplements, a pair of red taper candles, and a bottle of Cloud Nine massage oil.

Hotels from Norway to New Zealand are offering discounted rooms to couples who want to take a shot at conception -- with the ambience (rousing tunes of Ravel and Rachmanikoff) and aphrodisiacs (oysters and champagne) to go with it.

Not many seemparticularly worried by the Y2K millennium bug which some fear will cause large-scale disruptions on January 1, including power outages and equipment malfunctions at hospitals. And what if the child is born on December 31, 1999, and has to spend the rest of his or life as a child of the last millennium (although the last child of the last millennium will certainly merit a lot of attention too)?

Accounts from across much of the continent suggests that partners who are determined to give it a shot are going ahead with it. One San Diego couple not only announced that they were going to conceive on April 1, All Fools's Day, but also that they would fly to Kiribati -- a Pacific Island on the International Date Line -- for a Caesarean section at 12:00:01 am on January 1, 2000.

But experts say making Baby2000 is easier said than conceived and easier conceived than delivered. First of all, normal intercourse during ovulation results in a pregnancy less than one in four times. Not all those pregnancies survive thefull term. And even though human gestation period averages 38 week (or around nine months), it can vary widely from seven to ten months. The April 9 date assumes a gestation period of 266 days, while some experts say it is closer to 280 days with a standard deviation of 10 days.

While the date of ovulation -- normally the 14th day after the beginning of the cycle -- varies from woman to woman, the gestation period also differs according to health factors and even race and ethnicity. End result: Only five per cent of mothers give birth on their ``due date.''

Some experts say babies conceived even until May and June can arrive prematurely on January 1. ``The chances of successfully planning to have a baby on a certain date are less than 1 per cent,'' Dr Raja Sayegh, who teaches obstetrics and gynaecology at the Boston University School of Medicine, told the Boston Globe recently, as the mania reached a crescendo.

Still, the hoopla is reaching a climax tonight. Consider this: