The Web site tells what insurance companies pay, on average, for procedures ranging from Caesarean delivery to a colonoscopy.

CNN: How to bargain hunt for health care

The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces -- are doing well following their Caesarean-section delivery at the Bellflower hospital, doctors said.

CNN: Mother of octuplets has six other children

The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound 8 ounces to 3 pounds 4 ounces -- were generally doing well in incubators following their Caesarean-section delivery at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, California, doctors said.

CNN: Octuplets' births surprise California doctors

There are fears that many women are choosing to have Caesarean sections so that the time of delivery can be more accurately planned.

BBC: Big rise in Caesarean births

With multiple births increasing the risk of premature delivery, the possibility of a caesarean and the chance deformities and disabilities, UK clinics were last year directed not to return more than two embryos to a patient's womb.

BBC: IVF under the microscope

It also makes the delivery of the baby more difficult, with caesarean sections and forceps deliveries more common.

BBC: Fat, pregnant or both?

He also claimed that some women might feel inhibited in the presence of their partner, and this might lead them to opt for a Caesarean, or for painkilling drugs, when they might otherwise persevere with a natural delivery.

BBC: 'Keep men out of delivery room'

For example, among women giving birth for the first time, there was a two-fold difference between hospitals with the highest and lowest rates of induction of labour (17% compared to 38%), emergency caesarean section after induction of labour (20% to 40%) and instrumental delivery (16% to 32%).

BBC: Maternity care varies across England