June 26, 2026 has become a coveted date for many pregnant women who want to give birth on a day that looks and sounds special. But doctors say a scheduled cesarean should never be chosen just because of an attractive date on the calendar, only for medical reasons. Some women do end up delivering naturally on the exact day they hoped for, even without planning it.
In Israel, cesarean deliveries account for about 20% of births, one of the lowest rates in the OECD. About 60% of those are emergency operations, after labor begins normally but complications force surgery, while 40% are planned in advance for known medical reasons. Dr. Ronnie Chen, head of the labor room, emergency intake and maternity wards in the women’s department at Rabin Medical Center, said that the familiar saying “once a cesarean, always a cesarean” is changing. He said 35% to 40% of cesareans are done because of a previous cesarean, but at his hospital 70% of women who previously delivered by cesarean are considered candidates for vaginal birth, and 90% of them succeed. He added that vaginal birth after cesarean is possible only after one prior cesarean, not after two.
The second most common reason for cesarean delivery is an abnormal fetal presentation, which accounts for about 35% of cases. These include breech presentation and other positions such as brow presentation, transverse lie, or “frank breech.” Chen said that for the past 20 years breech babies have not been allowed to be delivered vaginally and are automatically scheduled for cesarean, except in twin pregnancies when the leading twin is head-down and the second twin is breech.
Height can also play a role, though short women are not automatically required to have a cesarean. A Ben-Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center study found that women shorter than 1.54 meters had a nearly 21% chance of cesarean, compared with 14% among taller women. Estimated fetal weight is another factor, and 10% to 15% of pregnancies end in cesarean because of a large baby. Chen said babies over 4.250 kilograms are usually delivered by cesarean, with exceptions, including one case where he allowed a 4.3-kilogram baby to be born vaginally because the mother had previously delivered two similarly large babies.
Another 5% of cesareans are due to placental complications such as placenta previa, complete or partial, and about 5% more are due to maternal conditions such as heart or lung disease, or structural uterine abnormalities like a bicornuate uterus. Chen said special dates alone, including 26.6.26, are not enough reason for surgery, though hospitals may try to schedule medically necessary cesareans a few days before or after a desired date when possible. He also described a patient who came in hoping to deliver on such a date, only to discover she was already in labor at 37 weeks.
