There was a scandal in italy a while ago because in a certain hospital they were doing an abnormal number of c-sections, because it counts as surgery and they get paid more from the state.
Hah! In Brazil nowadays pretty much all babies are born by C-section. Why? Doctors like it because it's more convenient since you can schedule it, whereas natural birth happens when it happens. Women like it because it happens under anesthetic and for (ahem) cosmetic reasons.
I thought that was unnecessary, too, until I saw many women that had lasting issues due to natural births where things broke that do not fully heal anymore and permanently reduce their quality of life.
In some countries, an involuntary C-section (because of complications) becomes also prohibitively expensive, so people opt for the voluntary one to risk-manage.
Vaginal tearing is pretty common, as are anal fissures. They often cut the vagina to avoid tearing, easier to heal; but not fun either.
That all heals with no real differences, but some women have issues with their pelvic floor and postpartum bleeding. I think some of that is mitigated by a c-section.
Without being graphic, having something so large pass through a birth canal that is usually a lot smaller can have lasting physical effects (but not always!)
your tummy sees the light more (summer, beach, etc) than the other part you refer to. So if you care about cosmetics I'd wage people would go for something that does not leave a huge scar over their guts.
You're comparing a surgical scar in your abdomen (which these days can be done pretty minimally invasive in some cases) to unpredictable tearing into the perineum (and in extreme cases even into the rectum), not to mention likely complications from birth like (temporary) incontinence.
I wouldn't advocate for routine c-sections and it is still surgery with all the risk that entails, but if you're not generally prone to scarring, the optimal outcome for a c-section can be far more predictable and doesn't have to involve a "huge scar over [your] guts".
This is common practice also in China, it's just more convenient with scheduling and women are being brainwashed about delivery being some crazy painful thing Asians can't handle. I was surprised they didn't try to push my wife into C-section, maybe it played a role it was rather small provincial hospital where her family knew doctors instead of Beijing factory lines, which we visited only in beginning of pregnancy and you really felt like in factory over there with each door performing only small part of examination (while all of this was performed by one doctor in one practice in Europe with 2nd pregnancy).
> women are being brainwashed about delivery being some crazy painful thing Asians can't handle
Well, speaking in a universal sense, delivery is super painful. If you don't get an epidural. Think "fall down while standing because the pain is overwhelming" painful.
Once you get the epidural, you can sleep during contractions.
As I understood they do not go for a c-section until shit hits the fan or the mother has a precondition which required a planned c-section.
Unlike dentists we had a good experience with gyn and the delivery hospital. We had a pretty complicated delivery, which required suction of baby, I remember thinking at this point they would take her to surgery. But nope the head nurse got the suction thingy and did her magic as I watched through.
This was totally different from India where C-section is the very very common, We had couple of babies at the same time in family and all those in India had c-section, It's not random.
One thing I did not like was there were very limited beds in delivery section, which means the hospital did not admit till there is 4 inch dilation.
Giving birth by any means is though. My wife had a caesarian delivery (as a medical intervention when the natural way turned out to be impossible), but recovered as fast as you would from giving birth the natural way (the scar is pretty much invisible too by now).
So no, not everyone who has had one will assert that they are huge life disrupting procedures. They are medical procedures, and generally should not be performed if not needed because of a slightly higher risk of complications, but they are not normally life disrupting (the baby on the other hand is).
