While July is one of the most popular months for babies to be born in this country,* June is when some expecting mothers are scheduling their deliveries. For a variety of reasons, some new moms are picking the day and time of their baby’s arrival by scheduling a C-section. Some doctors are urging women to be cautious about doing Mother Nature’s job for her.

The latest numbers show we are at an all-time high for C-section births in the U.S.** Nearly 1 in 3 babies is now born via surgery.** Courtney Prang had no choice during her first pregnancy, when she went into labor 7 weeks early.

“I’m thinking, ‘what’s going on’? Here I am having this baby and she was early and then they found out she was breech,” says Prang.

Her daughter, Riley, is fine today, but when Prang became pregnant with her second child, she had to make a choice: deliver naturally or schedule another C-section. It’s a choice some women are making even if there are no signs of trouble. It’s called C-section by maternal request - and some doctors are leery.

“Although most people don’t think of a C-section as major abdominal surgery, the risks associated with it are similar,” says Celeste Durnwald, MD, at Ohio State University Medical Center.

In fact, a recent study showed that women who had planned C-sections were re-hospitalized nearly three times more often with complications than those who gave birth naturally.*** Having the C-section before the due date can also put the baby at risk. Dr. Durnwald says even in the final days of pregnancy, development is still occurring.

“That includes the accumulation of fat tissue that helps the baby regulate their temperature after birth, there is also maturation of the intestinal system to make feeding easier,” says Durnwald.

Durnwald’s advice is to let the baby decide when it’s time to arrive, and leave the operating suites open for the C-sections that are medically necessary. Studies also show planned C-sections take more time and money than delivering naturally. On average, a woman who undergoes a planned C-section will pay nearly twice as much in medical fees and will spend nearly twice as long in the hospital.***

*”National Vital Statistics Report, Volume 56, No. 18, Provisional number and rate of live births by month: United States, January 2006 - September 2007”, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, retrieved May 2008 from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_18.htm

**”National Vital Statistics Report, Volume 56, No. 6, Births: Final Data for 2005”, published December 5, 2007, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, retrieved May 2008 from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_06.pdf

*** “Maternal Outcomes Associated With Planned Primary Cesarean Births Compared With Planned Vaginal Births”, Obstetrics & Gynecology 2007;109:669-677