...it is important to describe the whole picture - why the C/S was performed, the health status of the women on presentation, the demographics of the population accessing the particular hospital/obstetrician, the idea of what constitutes high risk in the minds of the particular obstetricians evaluating the health status of these women.
Excellent point Kazznazz. I think that a majority of obstetricians who favour caesarean sections do genuinely believe that they are offering women a safer choice. In the mind of someone who is medically and surgically trained to deal with complications and high risk births, a caesarean may seem a safer option, as it offers a means of controlling some of the variables.

Also, it is a psychological trait to overestimate the general incidence of something based on your own experience of it. By this I mean that if an obstetrician deals with predominately (and genuinely) high risk births, and is asked what they think the incidence of high risk births in the general population, they are likely to overestimate by a significant factor.

Aside from being a good justification for a midwife led model of care, it is another reason that transparency in statistics relating to intervention and caesarean birth is potentially so valuable - it may help obstetricians to understand when they are overestimating risk factors in the women who present to them.