Induced Labor

I met up with my friend, Dan, for a dinner of gyros at a small Turkish restaurant off Snelling Avenue. He is a pre-med student at North Michigan University. He gets riled up easily about over-prescribed and possibly unnecessary medical procedures.

"Something like a third of all labor is artificially induced in this country," Dan said. "And, who knows, most of them might be necessary. But odds are, some of them aren't. Like my brother. My mother's doctor induced her early so my brother would be born early enough so my parents could claim his as a tax deduction for the full year." Dan laughed. "I doubt that was necessary."