Another Y2K Glitch: Baby Boom Fizzles

Remember about nine months ago when couples supposedly were coupling in a frenzy to produce the first baby of the new millennium?

That baby boom apparently has gone bust, at least in California.

Many Los Angeles-area hospitals report that there are no more women scheduled for delivery around Jan. 1 than in previous years. Some hospitals, such as L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, are preparing such perks as gift baskets, certificates and photographs for new parents who deliver on that date. (Queen of Angels and Garfield Medical Center in Monterey Park also are feting families of the last baby of 1999.)

But most offer gifts for New Year’s babies anyway, and none are hiring a marching band or sending up fireworks in anticipation of having the city’s first baby of 2000. And all the facilities made it clear there will be no labor-inducing tactics to deliver any baby before he or she decides to appear.

“Usually we have one or two women due,” says Liz Mulready, team leader for maternal and child health at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica. “We saw a little upsurge in the last month, but that’s normal--it corresponds with Valentine’s Day. But that’s not going to affect the 31st.”

The race for the millennium baby went into hype overdrive in March, when some couples were determined to conceive in the hope the child would be born the second after midnight on Jan. 1, 2000.

Contests were announced and lavish prizes promised. Some competitive parents-to-be even wondered how they could fly to New Zealand, where the year 2000 will dawn first, and drop a baby right on time.

But most of that hoopla has evaporated. Sam Paglia, who owns a graphic arts company in Canada, obtained the U.S. trademark for the phrase “Official Millennium Baby.” His idea was to get companies to underwrite a lavish $2-million cash and prize package for the first North American couple to have the millennium baby.

In response to an e-mail inquiry about the contest’s status, Paglia wrote: “The program was canceled back in August due to lack of interest.”

Duane and Susan Dimock of San Diego were ready to grab the brass ring in March, when they told The Times of their plans to conceive on April Fools’ Day and, before New Year’s, fly to the island republic of Kiribati (it’s on the international dateline) so Susan could have a caesarean section at 12:01.

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But Susan never got pregnant, Duane says.

“It was sort of the thought-of-the-moment,” he says now of their plans. “And it didn’t happen. We were thinking that this was the cutoff point [for having a child]. It was a common decision--we talked about it.”

The two now plan to spend New Year’s Eve at the beach.

One local mother-to-be who is due Jan. 1 said she and her husband weren’t deliberately trying to have a millennium baby.

“We didn’t plan this at all,” says Lisa Gorjestani of Santa Monica, a 29-year-old event planner. “It was one big surprise. When I found out the due date, I couldn’t believe it. It’s just my luck--things like that happen to me.”

Gorjestani says she understands that her due date is not set in stone and adds that early deliveries run in her family.

“If it happens,” she says, “it’ll be really neat timing, but the most important thing is that she’s healthy.” (She and husband Mark know it’s a girl; they’ve named her Taylor).

At least one hospital is preparing for a major increase in babies, but not until Feb. 5--the beginning of the Chinese New Year.

“This will be the year of the dragon,” says Ni-Wei Chu, labor and delivery nurse director for Garfield Medical Center, which serves a large Chinese population from the area. “Babies born in that year will be smarter and richer and have good futures with lots of prosperity.”

Because of that and the year 2000, the facility is preparing for a 25% increase in births, beginning in February.

Says Chu, “The whole year is going to be crazy.”

Jeannine Stein can be reached at jeannine.stein@latimes.com.