Even if labor reduces some of the risks to baby associated with C-sections, proponents of
elective C-section are touting the benefits of using C-sections to avoid labor and argue strongly
against laboring before a C-section (and they apparently have at least one study to support this
position -- see the excerpt below from a July 2004 Salon.com article).

Breastfeeding proponents who support elective C-sections should consider that women who
choose C-sections, especially with the hope of avoiding pain or injury, are probably not going to
wait to go into labor.

Kerry Ose, PhD

Excerpt from Salon.com:

 "a new study of 363 women from Tel Aviv University does show that elective C-section can have a
protective effect. The prevalence of urinary incontinence one year after women delivered vaginally
was 10.3 percent, but for women who had an elective C-section with no labor, it was only 3.4
percent. (It was 12 percent for women who had a C-section after laboring). Dr. Alison Weidner, an
OB/GYN at Duke University Medical Center who sees women on a day-to-day basis suffering from
childbirth-related pelvic problems, decided she didn't want to take that risk when her doctor
predicted her unborn child would weigh more than 10 pounds. "Twenty percent of women who
attempt a vaginal delivery risk ending up with a C-section anyway and a C-section after labor is
more risky than doing it before," she says. "The most common cause of complications following
C-section is infection, including infection of the uterus and wound infections, which is highly
associated with prolonged labor and prolonged rupture of membranes. By definition, if the section
is performed electively, these two situations of prolonged labor and rupture of the amniotic
membranes don't exist, substantially decreasing the likelihood of infection after delivery." Weidner
also points to the fact that it's estimated that overall morbidity is reduced from 24 percent to less
than 5 percent when C-section is performed electively, as opposed to in labor."

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