Early C-Sections Come With Risks, According To Study

January 8, 2009 6:56 a.m. EST

Miami, FL (AHN) - Having a Caesarean section early to make delivering a baby more convenient comes with health risks, according to a study released this week.

The study, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, looked at more than 24,000 infants, and found that those delivered at 37 weeks to mothers who had elective C-sections were almost twice as likely as those born at 39 weeks to have complications like bloodstream infections and breathing problems.

A fetus usually comes to full term by 37 weeks, but many doctors recommend waiting until 39 weeks before having an elective C-section.

The study was published in the Jan. 8 New England Journal of Medicine. Its authors think it may impact the popular practice of early, scheduled c-sections, which account for about one in every 14 births in the United States.

The last available data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps on c-sections is from 2006, in which c-sections accounted for 31 percent of all U.S. births. This was a sharp increase from 1970 when C-sections made up only 5 percent of births, and 1996, when the rate was 20 percent.