Local obstetrician Susan Harvey scheduled a women's labor induction on Thursday to ensure she had her baby before the end of the year.

The single mother will be able to stay home from work longer because of the money she'll save on taxes, Harvey said. And she's already paid her insurance deductible this year, so she won't have to pay it again in the first few days of next year, the doctor said.

"It was a reasonable reason," Harvey said.

Tax adviser Don Corbett, a partner at Grant Thornton in Seattle, says parents who make less than $100,000 a year can save about $500 on their 2005 taxes if they add another family member.

"If you're going to have the baby on the first or second of January - shoot, it's going to hurt you," Corbett said.

But before he would recommend rushing a delivery for tax reasons, Corbett has some more practical suggestions for saving on your taxes such as buying a new car to take advantage of the sales-tax exemption, which could save twice as much as having a baby.

He also suggested donating a stock to charity, which would save the capital-gains taxes you would owe if you cash out of the stock.

Becky Voelpel, clinical manager for labor and delivery and antepartum care at Swedish Medical Center, said soon-to-be parents often want to induce labor around the last week of December, but not for the tax break. It's usually because of vacations or having family in town, she said.

Having labor induced for the tax break is mostly something patients and health-care providers just joke about.

"There is always the, 'Tee hee, you get a tax deduction,' " Voelpel said.

Swedish recently changed its policy on inductions for first-time mothers, Voelpel said, making it harder to schedule a delivery. With a limited number of appointments, mothers who have a medical reason to be induced get scheduled first, she said.

December is usually a busier month for births than other winter months. The median number of babies born each day in King County during the last week of December last year was 81, state Department of Health figures show. For the rest of December, the median was 69 a day.