Booty Caller sends text-message reminders on women's fertility cycles

Making a baby: No longer just a private event between a woman, a man, their fertility specialist, a surrogate and a baby planner.

Think more technology.

Think birds, bees, BlackBerrys.

Think Booty Caller.

This is the new service by the folks at BabyCenter.com, and it uses a woman's ovulation cycle to send a series of text-message reminders to her phone.

Sample messages include ...

"Your fertile window starts in 1 week. Using a lubricant can get in the way of getting pregnant."

"Your fertile window opens today! Tender breasts are one of the first signs of pregnancy!"

"Your fertile window starts in 1 week. ... (What follows are details too icky for a family newspaper.)" Aaanyhoo.

"Having a baby today is almost like making an appointment," said Linda Murray, editor in chief of BabyCenter. "You have to be reminded to have sex."

Reminded up to 18 times, in fact, three texts per menstrual cycle, always ending with the cheerful "Today is your last fertile day! If you get pregnant during this cycle, your due date will be on or around (insert date here)."

Booty Caller's motto is, "We tell you when, you decide where," which raises the question: Will Booty Caller 2.0 include texts such as, "Your fertile window opens today! Pop a tic tac and get into the back seat of your Honda"?

After the messages run their course, users can either re-up or feel like big fat failures because they were not able to get pregnant, despite all the advantages of modern technology. (Standard text-messaging charges apply; check with your carrier.)

At least one of the thousands (BabyCenter won't release exact numbers) of moms-to-be who have signed up for the new service is very, very pleased.

"I live my life on the phone," said Nancy Evers, an interior designer and mother of three who is trying for a fourth. When she heard of the on-the-go sex reminders, "I thought, oh, this is genius." Her husband also receives the texts. After the simultaneous alerts, they text back and forth about the texts and get all flirty.

They can see no better way. It would be nice if they remembered to have sex on their own, Evers said. But absent that, technology that reminds you to be human can be very useful.

Evers speaks via phone from California, where she lives. A Booty Caller representative has traveled to her home to be present for the interview.

"But they're not here when we're actually trying to conceive," Evers said.