We’re living in crazy times. Once upon a time, the biggest concern the medical industry had about pregnant women was making sure they stayed pregnant long enough to birth a full-term, healthy baby. Fast-forward to the age of abused technology, and we’re lining women up for elective induction and cesareans. Yes, these women actually ask to be induced or cut open. They want their babies with a side order of convenience. Is that so wrong? Well, kind of.

Induction and cesareans both bear significant risks. There is no scholarly data that supports doing either just because. Babies require a full-term pregnancy to reach total fetal development. Forcing them out before they’re done cooking can have lifelong side effects for both the baby and the mother. Still, because these procedures have become so commonplace, women tend to view them as being normal and fairly safe. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Among first-time mothers, the risk of Cesarean is around 12 percent when a woman goes into labor naturally on her own. If she is induced for medical reasons, that rate jumps to 23.4 percent. Furthermore, if she is induced electively without medical cause, the risk of Cesarean is highest at 23.8 percent.

There are a myriad of reasons that women come to want to be induced, and unfortunately, doctors are often on board with their requests because they make a bundle off of deliveries that they can pencil into their schedules.

15 Big Baby? Nonsense!

A lot of mothers-to-be are anxious to give birth. They are full of a mixture of emotions that are both positive and negative. Sometimes, doctors and even well-meaning friends can scare expectant mothers with tales of childbirth gone wrong. For instance, the best friend whose plans for a natural birth turned into a wayward C-section she didn’t want may come across as a horrific experience when sharing it with a friend that is 8 months along.

Doctors may also scare patients who are close to their due dates and nervous that something could go wrong. Terms like shoulder dystocia are thrown around willy nilly, and moms-to-be are made to feel like going overdue could equal a baby that is too big to birth.

So, some moms like to get ahead of the curve and request induction from their doctors out of fear that the birth will hurt more if the baby is larger. This isn’t true at all. In fact, most mothers who have birthed both smaller and larger babies tend to claim their bigger babies came out more easily. Some moms are really put off by ultrasound growth estimates, too. For that reason, they think inducing earlier will spare them some nasty consequences. To be clear, baby’s size has never been an evidence-based reason to induce labor.

14 Lung Maturity Mayhem

In the United States, 39 weeks is now considered full term for a pregnancy. What does that mean exactly? Your due date hasn’t arrived yet, but at 39 weeks it is assumed the baby’s lungs have reached enough maturity to live outside of Mom’s womb without needing interventions, like a stay in the NICU or time spent on a respirator.

For this reason, many expectant mothers falsely assume that it’s completely safe to induce at 39 weeks and get the whole process of birth over with. The reasons they may want to do so vary - from just being ready to meet their baby, to being tired of pregnancy and the anxiety that comes with trying to predict how birth will go.

However, just because a pregnancy is dated at 39 weeks doesn’t mean the baby has really been cooking for that long. Due dates can vary widely — as much as two to three weeks in either direction. That means a 39-weeker could be 36 weeks, which isn’t considered term anywhere.

Furthermore, when fetal lung maturity is reached, the baby’s lungs release a protein called surfactant, and that chemical triggers Mom’s body to produce oxytocin and start labor. Thus, if labor hasn’t started, one can assume fetal lung maturity hasn’t been achieved yet. Being 39 weeks is not a reason to induce labor.

13 Due Date Doldrums

Going beyond 39 weeks, some mommies are anxious to meet their littles ones and they assume that it’s safe to induce as long as their due date has come and gone. Again, due dates can be drastically off. That’s not the only reason not to induce because of being overdue, though.

Many doctors are happy about this trend of inducing moms for no reason, because it allows them more flexibility to schedule their work days for once, which tends to be pretty unpredictable. Sadly, this trend has contributed to a downward spiral in the women’s health community. Women and their bodies are no longer respected during labor.

Instead of focusing on being overdue, mommies should be standing in recognition that being 40 weeks pregnant is merely a benchmark of development. Some babies will need 42 or even 46 weeks to cook. Yes, that really happens. In addition, a lot of women are misinformed and believe that going overdue represents risk to the baby. It doesn’t. Induction does. Reaching your due date isn’t a reason to induce.

12 Nana And Pap Need To Be There

Oh yes, mothers often request induction just so they can schedule their entire crew to be there at their bedside. Sometimes it’s a matter of wanting grandparents to be present who live out of town. In other cases, they may want to schedule their baby’s birth so that it doesn’t fall on big brother’s first day of school. Let’s cut through the bullshit for a moment.

There is absolutely no evidence-based reason to induce labor based on the individuals who are present. For goodness sake, plenty of women are delivering unassisted these days. Moms and dads are fighting for privacy and not even telling the grandparents when the baby has been born until a few days later. Compromising a developing baby’s health just so your favorite aunt from the other side of the country can fly in the night before and videotape it for you is not science. It’s selfish. The end.

11 Daddy Is Going Away

Alright, maybe he’s not going to jail. He may be headed to Afghanistan to do something totally heroic for all we know. The point is, mothers will urge their doctors to induce them so that their husbands can be present for the birth. Some even go so far as to push for an elective induction just to make sure he can schedule his time off on leave appropriately.

That’s not how it works! He schedules around the baby — not the other way around! Indeed, it would be a sad state of affairs to be the couple who were somehow kept apart during the birth of their child. It happens. The fear of this rare event occurring is not a legitimate reason to induce labor.

There is no science that shows arbitrarily inducing labor without medical cause is a good idea. In fact, there’s a plethora of evidence to the contrary. Women who are induced electively run a significant risk of needing other interventions, such as a forceps or vacuum-assisted delivery. They are far more likely to need a C-section, and more likely to struggle with breastfeeding and postpartum mood disorders. All for the sake of Dad? Maybe rethink that.

10 But Some Babies Come Swiftly

Noticing a trend among these induction plans yet? They’re all decisions made based out of fear. The mother is afraid she won’t get the birth she wants. Listen ladies, it’s not up to you. It never was. It’s not supposed to be. You should feel encouraged to prepare yourself for the labor and birth experience that you want. However, understand that shit happens, and you also need to prepare to go with the flow (while completely informed, of course).

Most of the time, labor is fairly lengthy. The average first time mother is in labor for 14 hours, while moms of subsequent babies have labors that average 8 hours in length. In the rare event that a woman doesn’t make it to the hospital in time, she generally ends up having a baby in her home or in a vehicle.

Both can happen in a completely safe manner. Women have unassisted and assisted home births all the time. For low risk women — which make up the majority of all pregnancies — it is just as safe as a hospital birth. Inducing because you’re afraid of making it to the hospital on time is not wise, and no medical journal has ever supported such.

9 But It’s My Birthday

Oh yes, we’re going there. How exciting is it to find out you’re going to share star signs with your baby? I was thrilled when I found out my third baby was due a week away from my birthday. I’ve always loved December and the holidays, and I looked forward to sharing that with him.

However, let’s pretend for the sake of the point I’m trying to make that he wasn’t due until January. Would I have pushed to induce just so I could have a December playmate? Hell no, and I would hope had I tried that my midwife would give me a hefty lecture for trying.

Your birthday, Dad’s birthday, or a special holiday are not reasons to induce labor. Awe, your BFF is due the same week as you and you’re both hoping to go into labor at the same time? Why not induce, right? Wrong. We’ve even heard of women trying to induce before the end of the year when due in the first part of January because they don’t want to pay any more on their insurance deductible. FFS, no. To date, there is no medical journal that has published a study on elective induction and insurance policies, but you can just about guess what the result would be. Eat some cake and chill.

8 I’m So Over Pregnancy

Don’t be so quick to assume we don’t understand. Almost every woman who has ever been pregnant to term can sympathize with you. In the end, we’re all over it. We imagine that biologically, it’s supposed to be this way. Pregnancy is such a beautiful and exciting time. On the flipside, birth downright terrifies a lot of women. So, it makes sense that the end would be miserable just to give women the drive they need to see it through.

You’ve got SPD. You’re crampy and exhausted from prodromal labor. You’re tired of being pregnant, dammit. It’s your body. You can do what you want with it, right? Sure, except it’s not just your body. It’s your baby’s body. In respect of bodily autonomy, making choices that could affect your child for the rest of his or her life should not be taken so lightly and made in the name of merely being tired of being knocked up. Hang in there, mommies. No one stays pregnant forever. Baby is coming.

7 Vacate Before The Vacation

Some moms are down with serving their babies an eviction notice just so they can get on with their non-pregnant life. In other words, they want to have their bodies back. That mom that is due in mid-June thinks inducing at the end of May so she can join her hubby on that cruise he won for early June sounds ideal.

Bathing suits. Mixed drinks. Sun bathing. Late nights with your girlfriends. Ah, the little luxuries we give up while pregnant. The thing is, motherhood is entirely about sacrifice. This is just the beginning. If you can’t hack the nine-month wait to meet your little one without developing an urge to rush them out of the womb before their brain and lungs are ready for life, how are you going to handle the terrible twos, chicken pox, mean girls in middle school, sexual education in high school, and so on? Yeah… it gets harder. Don’t rush into it.

6 Nobody Wants A Chunky Baby

This might be kind of true. While there are certainly people who love the sight of a chunky baby with all his or her rolls, most parents expect to meet a tiny six- to seven-pound creation at the time of birth. They want at least a few weeks to be spent in all of those tiny newborn clothes they washed, folded and stuffed into that brand new, expensive dresser.

Moms who have given birth to larger babies before tend to seem even more inclined to ask for induction for subsequent babies. It’s not just about the fear of birthing a large baby, though. It’s aesthetics. They want a tiny, little squish.

Hey, having a nine-pounder last time around, I can sympathize. But I absolutely would not request that my next baby be induced just because we missed out on newborn diapers after week one. Why? Because how would I ever justify it to myself if my baby was born with organs that weren’t fully developed all so they could fit into the clothes I preferred.

5 Mommy Needs Sleeeeeep

The end of pregnancy can get pretty brutal. There are raging hormones, hemorrhoids, hot flashes, mood swings, headaches… the list goes on. Almost every mother struggles to get some good shuteye in during the last few weeks. It’s just too uncomfortable. Even with kicking your husband out of the bed and using that Snoogle every chance you get, you’re up five times a night to pee and readjust.

Going through every day so damn uncomfortable starts to wear on your psyche. You get very irritable and impatient. You start trying out ways to kickstart labor naturally. But all the sex and walking in the world doesn’t seem to be working. So, you break down and ask your doc to induce you and put you out of your misery.

Rest assured, newborns sleep pretty damn well. You’ll be catching up on all of that shuteye very soon. In the meantime, it’s best to keep preparing yourself for labor, rather than for how and when it will start. Focus on the positive points of those final weeks. Spend time with your other half soaking it all up until your family expands. There’s no going back. You can’t redo it. So, do it right the first time. Just as they will after birth, baby’s needs come first, momma.

4 But My Throat Is On Fiyah

One of the most common pleasantries of pregnancy is digestive issues. All that progesterone a mother makes while pregnant causes the digestive system to slow down drastically. This is where that constipation comes in. The stomach stops producing as much stomach acid, too. Just when you thought you had too much! Nope!

The truth is, most of the time indigestion is caused by too little stomach acid. So, food just sits there and doesn’t get digested. As stomach acid builds up trying to break down those Oreos, it burns the esophageal lining. Hello, heartburn.

Ouch! It’s such a pain in the ass, am I right? Forget apple cider vinegar and papaya enzymes. Nothing is working, and you need the baby out. There’s no more room in there. Your ribs are about to break and you’re begging for Pitocin.

This is where we need to take a step back and examine the side effects of a drug like Pitocin. Are debilitating contractions, an increased risk of fetal distress, an increased likelihood of a Cesarean, fetal brain damage, jaundice and more as possible risks to you and your baby honestly less extreme and dangerous than a few more days of heartburn? The science says no. So does common sense.

3 Puking My Guts Out Over Here

Talk about actually being sick of being pregnant. Up to 2 percent of all pregnant women are affected hyperemesis gravidarum. These women struggle with morning sickness unlike anything anyone has ever seen. No one expects it to happen to them. When it does, many assume it’s normal at first and are alarmed by how severe morning sickness can be. They finally sympathize with their previously pregnant friends.

But when it doesn’t calm down after the first — or the second — trimester, and it’s causing Mom to lose weight instead of gain it, the diagnosis is slapped down and they start counting down the days of their pregnancy and wishing it away. They just want relief. That’s okay. No one can judge a mother for that. But feeling those emotions and acting on them are two very different things.

Unless a mother’s HG is so severe that she has failed to consume enough calories to nourish her baby, there is no reason to induce labor. Yes, even if she’s still throwing up at week forty, it’s still best to keep that baby in there. Hey, you’ve made it this long.

2 Who Doesn't Want A Tight Snatch?

In the spirit of crazy reasons women want to have their babies before it’s time, we can’t let C-sections go unmentioned. Just as inductions can be elective, so can Cesareans. Nearly 10 percent of all scheduled procedures are actually scheduled cesareans. There are actually women out there who request to have a C-section because they don’t want their vaginas to endure childbirth.

It’s true! They are worried about just how well things may — or may not — bounce back. They don’t want stitches or tears. They don’t want to think about having numbness down there for the rest of their years. They worry incessantly that the accordion-like organ won’t actually tighten back up.

All in the name of their coochies, mommies are lining up to be sliced open to spare their girly bits from any trauma. While there are certainly ways to make a C-section gentler, there’s no arguing that vaginal births are safer and healthier for moms and babies. It’s a damn shame any doctor is on board with this.

1 Terrifying Tokophobia?

It’s totally reasonable to have some fear about childbirth. Some women approach pregnancy with joy and excitement. They look forward to the birth and experiencing what their ancestors have for years before them. Many of the women with this outlook choose to birth without pain medications.

Others are hoping to get an epidural as soon as they have their first contraction. They don’t want to feel anything, and they don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Then there are others who are so frightened by the perception they have of the pain during childbirth, that they never even want to feel that first contraction. They want to bypass it altogether.

These women commonly ask their doctors to perform a C-section in advance of their due dates to try to circumvent them ever having to experience birth. The moral of the story is: barring a medical condition that makes it more dangerous to stay pregnant than induce or have a surgical birth, babies should be left to keep cooking until they pick out their own damn birthday.

Sources: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Florida Hospital, Parents Magazine, Fit Pregnancy