Sept. 4, 2008 -- Moms who deliver naturally may be more responsive to their newborn's cries than women who deliver via cesarean section, a study shows.

But experts caution that women who have C-sections should not feel like failures as mothers because they did not deliver vaginally. In recent years, the rate of C-section delivery in the U.S. has increased from about 4.5% of all deliveries in 1965 to 29.1% in 2006, according to information cited in the study.

The study is published in the October issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

"Just because moms who deliver vaginally respond better to their infant's cries does not mean they are better parents," says researcher James E. Swain, MD, PhD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. "Other factors play a role, including the whole lifetime experience of the mother, the presence of a supportive father, as well as other socioeconomic and cultural factors."

The researchers used brain scans called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on 12 new moms two to four weeks following delivery to determine if the type of delivery affected how responsive they were to their newborn's cries.