Since 1990, the rate of induced labor in the United States has more than doubled, raising alarms that doctors were too quick to use drugs to artificially begin a mother's labor, sometimes for the convenience of the mother or their own schedule rather than for medical necessity. By 2006, about 1 of every 5 babies came into the world according to somebody else's schedule. Cesarean sections increased even more, climbing from 5% of all births in 1970 to more than 31% of births by 2007. The result was that more babies were born before their 39th week, which carries risks of undeveloped lungs, sudden infant death syndrome and even learning disabilities later in life, according to the March of Dimes
