IFP - Iranian mothers lined up at maternity wards on 7/7/1397 in the Iranian calendar (September 29, 2018) to give birth to their infants on that certain date despite dangers of delivering babies prematurely.



The date 7/7/1397 was one of the busiest days for delivery at hospitals as were similar dates like 6/6/96 (August 28, 2017) and 5/5/95 (July 26, 2016).

Unfortunately, choosing �luxury� dates for the delivery of infants has become all the rage among parents, who use it to show off. Parents compromise their infants� health for the sake of a chic and prestigious date, so much so that Alireza Raeisi, Iran�s deputy health minister, reacted to the issue and termed it a disaster.

�Unfortunately, a problem we are witnessing in some ostensibly modern societies is that individuals are willing to change the date of their infants� birth and, for instance, deliver their babies on their date of marriage or another certain date,� said the official.

�So, for example, if their baby is due on 20/7/1397 (October 12, 2018), they plan to have the baby delivered by caesarean on 7/7/97 (September 29, 2018), to make the date of birth an interesting one, but this is a disaster, and it is really worrying to deal with the health of infants and the country�s future generation like this,� he said.

�Bear in mind that tampering with delivery dates will increase the number of infants being hospitalized at the ICU and even the infant mortality rate, and families should be discouraged from doing this,� he said.

He noted that one of the problems is the high rate of caesarean deliveries.

�Although the rate of C-section deliveries has dropped by 7 to 8 percent given the measures adopted, we still have not reached the ideal point in this regard. One should know that natural delivery results in the secretion of special hormones that improve the amount, quality and continuity of breastfeeding,� he said.

Early or late delivery is one of the important factors that can threaten the health of the mother and the newborn baby.

Meanwhile, Azamossadat Mousavi, the head of the Iranian Gynaecologists Association, has also weighed in on pregnant ladies storming some hospitals to have early deliveries on 7/7/1397.

�Unfortunately, in the past two years there has been a cultural change in the country whereby parents want their babies born on special days. We have witnessed this trend in the past as well, and tried to raise mothers� cultural awareness and asked gynaecologists not to be pressurized by families into helping with early deliveries,� she said.

This comes as other dates such as 8/8/98 or 9/9/99 are ahead, and definitely we will be witnessing a huge rush to have marriages as well as premature or late deliveries on certain dates.