One niece was induced three full weeks before her due date simply because she was having mild contractions and they "wanted to get it over with."

Any doctor willing to go along with this should be defrocked, or whatever they call what they do to asshat doctors. The emergency section from the cord prolapse was the result of the same kind of malpractice--she was a NICU nurse and should have known better, but in the end it was the doc's fault. Her baby could have died. The ironic thing is, this is the kind of birth where the woman will say, "well, my baby would have died if I hadn't been in the hospital." Um, no, honey, your baby almost died because you had an incompetent doctor. I can't imagine a midwife doing this, ever.

And thanks for your kind words. Not everyone agrees with me, to say the very, very least.