SAHANA has just celebrated her first birthday. She was born on February 4th, 2011, at 1.45pm. But it was not fate that brought her into the world at that precise moment. Rather, the time was calculated by a Hindu priest a month in advance. "You want the best for your child and this is just another precaution," says Sahana's mother, Supriya Damera. Her obstetrician, Pranathi Reddy, is familiar with such requests. She timed the Caesarean section so the baby would emerge, head first, at the prescribed hour. That day was so auspicious, Dr Reddy recalls, that she and her obstetrics team performed nearly ten C-sections between 9.30am and 10am.

If, indeed, fate is the product of infinite variables, Hindus believe that some can be tweaked by picking subha muhurtha, as the lucky windows are known in Sanskrit. They marry, start a new job or set off on journeys on good days of the week. They buy gold, scooters, cars and homes at the right time of the year to invite prosperity. Politicians and film-makers seek astrologers' advice to improve their chances at the ballot box or box-office. Businessmen have been known to issue IPOs after consulting the Hindu calendar because there is no earthly way to predict the vagaries of the market.

Now Hindu families have taken to timing the birth of their children to brighten the child's prospects—of joining India's elite civil service, say, or finding a suitable spouse. Dr Reddy says over 80% of the mothers she sees want to give birth at an auspicious time if theirs is a planned Caesarean delivery. Those who plump for induced labour also plan ahead. Then there are families who consciously choose a Caesarean section to ensure the child is born at the right moment. Dr Reddy recalls a Hindu couple from America who decided to have their baby in India because their obstetrician back home would not let them schedule the birth. Apparently, an astrologer had predicted that the boy would grow up to be an emperor if born at the chosen time.

Technology has spurred the trend. Rising incomes and a thriving health-care industry have pushed up the rate of Caesarean births in urban India, from 7% in 1993 to 17% in 2006, according to a study conducted for the Economic and Political Weekly. And a booming mobile-phone market—India has over 500m subscribers—makes peddling astrology easier than ever before. Indians can ring an astrologer directly. Alternatively, countless astrology apps or other software churn out lists of auspicious times closest to the due date. A report by Trak, a business blog, estimates that astrology is the second most popular text-message service used by India's urban mobile subscribers. (Ironically, the first is jokes.)

Dr Reddy says that many obstetricians discourage couples from seeking subha muhurtha if it means putting the child's or mother's health at risk. If not, though, "I have no objection," she says. Besides, Hindus aren't the only superstitious types timing the birth of their babies. China is expecting a 5% increase in births in 2012. It is, after all, the year of the dragon.