Nationwide, doctors, nurses and midwives are trying to decrease the rate of Cesareans. It's believed that the current rate, which experts place at about 25 percent, is too high.

But not every woman can give birth vaginally. Some studies, for instance, show that for women who have had one or more Cesarean sections, they'll most likely have to deliver their next baby by Cesarean, too – especially if their baby is more than 8 pounds.

Dr. Michael J. McMahon, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recently completed one study that looks at pregnant women who'd had at least one previous Cesarean to determine who could then give birth vaginally. Dr. McMahon's study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at 6,000 pregnant women. Among them, 3,249 underwent a trial of labor, and 1,962 of them delivered vaginally. That means about 25 percent, or 1,300, women who'd had a previous Cesarean were able to give birth vaginally.

Still, there's no predicting which women can deliver vaginally after they've had a Cesarean. McMahon emphasizes that women pregnant with large babies are most likely to need surgery to deliver subsequent babies. "Ideally, if you could predict with accuracy the baby's weight before its born, this would help in counseling women, as big babies are less likely to be delivered vaginally," says Dr. McMahon.

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