One out of every 300 births in the United States occurs in a motor vehicle, according to a recent telephone survey conducted by Jiffy Lube International and market research firm Ipsos-U.S. Express, the Birmingham News reports. According to the study, most births occurring in vehicles are due to traffic, inclement weather or "just bad timing," according to the News. In addition, the number of motor vehicle births varies from area to area depending on the number of nearby hospitals and the woman's economic status (MacDonald, Birmingham News, 5/27). According to statistics from state health departments that track the number of births that take place on the road, such births tend to be more common in large metropolitan areas such as Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles (Jiffy Lube release, 5/6). Low-income women, who often lack personal transportation, sometimes wait until they go into labor to seek out transportation or call an ambulance, according to Birmingham Fire & Rescue Service Capt. C.W. Mardis. Fifteen percent of women surveyed said that they had driven themselves to the hospital or birth center when they were in labor. Henci Goer, author of "The Thinking Woman's Guide To a Better Birth," said that women should never drive themselves to the hospital because contractions and rapid changes in the intensity of labor could make driving dangerous (Birmingham News, 5/27). The new women's channel on the Jiffy Lube Web site offers information for women about how to prepare for an emergency birth in a car and how to drive safely during and after pregnancy (Jiffy Lube release, 5/6).