High-Tech Rabbit

Despite those fearful facts you learned in high school--that a woman (or at least a girl) can become pregnant anytime, anywhere--there are actually only a few days each month when it’s possible. For couples trying to conceive a child, pinpointing these fertile days becomes terribly important.

This used to involve drugstore test kits or several minutes each morning with a pencil, paper, alarm clock and basal body temperature thermometer. But now there’s the Rabbit, a $159 all-in-one computer, thermometer and alarm clock. This high-tech device wakes you at the same time each morning, takes your temperature and remembers what your cycle was like last month. It tells a woman when she’s ovulated, and reminds her when she’s about to.

“The person who buys the computer has usually been trying for at least six months,” says Di Anne Roberts, Rabbit Computer Corp.’s director of medical services. The company offers a money-back guarantee if the user does not become pregnant within six months, provided she encloses a letter from her doctor saying conception was physically possible.

“We think this is very much a product that can be given as a gift,” Roberts says. “Mostly from husband to wife, but also by would-be grandparents.”

Right now available only through special order (1-800-443-0100, Ext. 206), the Rabbit people hope to have the computer in department stores for a Christmas promotion. Which may mark the first time a woman can increase her chances of getting pregnant by going shopping.