Sentara Obici Hospital’s Women’s Center celebrated a milestone on Tuesday — five years at zero.

That zero is a good thing, though. It represents the number of elective deliveries before 39 weeks of gestation — early induced labor or Caesarean section without a medical reason.

It is the only hospital in the state to have achieved the milestone for five years running, according to The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Survey.

Dr. Edward Wing, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Pediatrics at Obici, said unnecessary early deliveries can cause problems, particularly respiratory issues.

“A certain percentage of babies are not going to do as well if they’re born before 39 weeks,” he said. “Then you’ve got a sick baby because you wanted to have it on a certain date.”

The Leapfrog Group says unnecessary early deliveries can be dangerous, resulting in admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit, longer hospital stays and higher costs.

According to the March of Dimes, it is dangerous to have an elective early delivery because the due date may be off by a week or two, making the pregnancy end too early and causing problems with the baby’s health. Babies born before 39 weeks have smaller brains, are more likely to have vision and hearing problems and sometimes have trouble staying warm enough, sucking and swallowing.

“What used to happen was the deliveries would be scheduled for a number of reasons, from ‘I want my baby to be born on a certain date’ to one we heard a lot was ‘My husband is going to be deployed,’” Wing said. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of, ‘I’m tired of being pregnant. It’s been long enough.’”

In the past, Wing said, “A lot of times, we would kind of fulfill the wishes of the patient.”

But when medical research made it clear even late-term inductions could sometimes cause problems, the hospital began doing more education.

“I think what’s happened over the last five years is we’ve taken to educating our patients on the facts,” he said. “We still hear patients that want to do that, but we kind of talk them out of it.”