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One other thing I'd like to add that is somewhat oblique but important to consider in a discussion of professions and policy:

We are only starting to recognize the number of lifelong complications resulting from the prevalence of c-section deliveries, everything from pulmonary problems to a lack of skin flora imparted by the vaginal tract. Although we are developing therapies to compensate for these deficits, it seems we systematically fail to do the research by which to justify allocating the resources to preclude the need.

Natural child-birth is a far more complex and comprehensive process than it's been given credit. While the ready option of a c-section has created a large enough population of complications to bring that data come to light, it's caused a lot of long term problems that weren't part of the overall risk assessment when the decision to proceed to c-section is made. More important, these complications rarely play into the decision process to allocate resources by which to more often preclude the need for surgical delivery. I put that unconsciousness squarely at the feet of the medical community, for in their myopic desire to fend off the lawyers, they've negated the ancillary complications without really looking at them as critically as they should have done were the question determined scientifically and actuarially.

That's why I had an old obstetrician. You have plenty of young guns who're highly thought of but don't have the time-in-grade to recognize problems and more importantly avoid problems before (or just as) they start.

This OB was famous not only for his surgical skill but his intuitive convictions that "something isn't right" - which really wasn't intuition but highly developed diagnostic ability. And that only comes with catching a few thousand babies.

Also, he was of the old school that didn't jump to the knife at the first sign of trouble. A friend of mine had a long and difficult labor, but he shepherded her and her baby through just fine without a C-section. Only sign of the difficulty were the little indentations on baby's head from the forceps, and those went away quickly. She's an honor student at Columbia right now.

The young ones go to the C-section largely to avoid legal liability. Nobody was ever sued for going to a C-section too early (although if what you say is true, that may be the next area the vultures go after).