TONIGHT'S the night if you want a baby to be born on January 1, 2000 - and that's if you're lucky!

Experts are predicting that there will be a year 2000 baby-boom as thousands of couples across the world try to have babies on the historic day.

And they say that the best time to conceive a child for the millennium is between tonight and April 19, with the prime time slot of April 6 to 10 becoming an unofficial Making Babies For the Millennium Week.

Couples across the country only have a few precious days to hit the target and conceive their historic Millennium baby.

So bosses brace yourselves for employees taking time off during that week or even coming into the office looking bleary eyed after sleepless nights.

But even if couples do spend a week ensconced in their boudoir, there is actually not much chance of them actually getting it spot on. If you're first timers on the baby front, you have to start earlier, and it is always worth remembering that healthy modern woman actually carry babies for 41 weeks, not 40 weeks. And if the doctors do finally reward you with a due date of December 31 or January 1, don't start celebrating straight away - just five per cent of women actually give birth on the day they are supposed to.

There are plenty of pros and cons to having a Millennium baby. If you're the lucky couple whose baby is the first to be born in the Year 2000 it could prove to be a bit of a money spinner - especially if he or she is called Lenny or Milly.

And let's face it, you'll never forget how old your little terror is - counting the years from 2000 is as easy as 1,2,3.

But who would fancy seeing in the new Millennium in the maternity unit?

And imagine spending the most historic festivities of a lifetime looking like a before advert for a slimming club, sipping orange juice while all your friends are making light work of the champers.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.