It's interesting that birth was what came to your mind with the word canal. My mother's an OB-GYN, and in her 33 years of practice she has managed to maintain a perfect record. Knock on wood. She has even operated on different generations (she aided the mother give birth to her child, and when the child grew up, she aided that one to give birth to her own child) I have nothing against, home birth (I'm an acupuncturist and a big supporter of naturopathy) but I feel like most hospitals get a bad rep because of a few worst cases.
I think that there are many wonderful doctors in the world. And every country is so different too. I am not sure, do you live in the US? I grew up in Germany and when I was there, and I believe now as well, midwives were taking care of the birthing moms and doctors would get called in when there was a need for a medical intervention.
The horror stories of legs being bound together were from a long time ago - thankfully. But there is still a lot of cesareans today. It got a lot better for a while and then, things went a bit downhill again.
Partly, doctors and hospitals are concerned to get suit and often over treat and such because of that very real concern.
And people are not educated about their choices - but always happy to blame someone else if things go wrong.
I am glad that your mom is helping so many women to have a good birth experience.
I live in the Philippines, born and raised. That's why I didn't know about the freewrites being a common thing in school because we never had those writing exercises ;) Sometimes a CS operation is needed though, especially for bridged babies, larger ones or other oddities. I do think that the anaesthetics used is a bit overkill, and I know of a lot who have opted out because of it.
I would argue that doctors and hospitals can't be generalized like that. But, there are some who do over treat. I assure you there's internal debate among the medical community regarding this. Not all doctors agree with how others prescribe treatment. I would say that it's more based on the attitude of a person and not specifically the medical training.
Also, you might find it cool that I've done acupuncture as an alternative to anaesthetics. I've used it for a correction of a prolapse uterus and other gynecological procedures.
I thought that you are from the Philippines but wasn't sure. And it is very cool that you have used acupuncture as an alternative to anesthetics. I am sure that could be a good alternative to the epidurals which are very common here and are dangerous in my opinion.
As I said, I am glad that we have hospitals and well-trained doctors and I 100% agree with you that cesareans can be lifesavers for both, the mother and the child. In the US, one out of three babies is born by cesarean and I believe that that is a crazy high number.
You might find this article interesting.
https://www.consumerreports.org/c-section/your-biggest-c-section-risk-may-be-your-hospital/
I grew up in Germany and had friends who had babies. It was the normal thing to go to a hospital and there were midwives taking care of the birthing moms. Doctors were only needed if there was a complication.
And the maternity ward was even in a different building - or rather, area of town than the main hospital.
There is so much to say about this. The sad story is that the US does not have a good record when it comes to taking care of moms. We have the highest maternal death rate in a developed country and that is shameful.
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-rate-of-maternal-deaths-in-the-developed-world
Healthcare is very much a business here and for each dollar spend for healthcare, not that much goes to take care of people. A lot of that is profit going into the pockets of insurances, the pharmaceutical industry and more.
I am pretty sure if I had stayed in Germany, the idea of a homebirth would never have occurred to me. But here and especially at the time when I had my babies, it felt a lot safer to me than going to the hospital.