Deciding to have a Caesarean section at 37 weeks, when an infant is
technically full-term, should be harmless, right? Wrong, according to a
new study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development. 
The information in the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and reported by many media outlets, including the New York Times,
says that babies born via C-section at 37 weeks are twice as likely to
develop complications as children delivered via C-section at 39 weeks.
At 38 weeks, the increase in medical risk is also higher, but only by
50 percent. In other words, it's safest to have that Caesarean at 39 or
40 weeks. Or, to put another spin on this data, women who elect to have
C-sections a little ahead of the curve, primarily for reasons of
convenience, are putting their kids at risk.
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