I voted no because I think that every woman should have the freedom to birth the way she wants to.

Also, the way that elective c/s's are recorded and what constitutes an elective, is very wide.

I had two failed VB attempts and for the 3rd, I was advised to have a c/s for risk reasons and the fact I had developed a condition which made a c/s most advisable.

It was still listed as and elective.

We don't know the reasons behind every birth story and we should not allow others to judge, IMO.
I believe we are exceptionally lucky in this country to be able to access some of the best services in the world when specialised assistance is required before during or after birth. This is certainly not the case in some countries.
We have exceptional ante natal and post natal care available to us here in Australia and excellent facilities for women who have need of special care during labour. We also have wonderful services to help pre-term or seriously ill babies.

The language of birth should never reflect an assumption of "failure" in the event that specialised assistance is required and it is important to acknowledge that there are some very real circumstances where assistance is absolutely necessary.

It is when these undeniably valuable procedures start to become the standard form of birth management that we need to re-evaluate our approach. Medical and surgical management of pregnancy and childbirth should be available to all of us if and when problems arise.

The World Health Organisation has delivered (amongst other things) guidelines which suggest a reasonable percentage of women who will need such medical/surgical assistance; 5% - 15%.
In hospitals where these percentages are inflated by as much as 3 or 4 times what would be considered normal we need to know why this is the case.

Are women being given the support and encouragement they need during labour. Are women being assessed according to their individual progress or are they being assessed according to a model of what individual obstetricians see as ?normal? for all women?

Obstetricians are people and are subject to all the faults and failings of normal human beings. We tend to elevate them to a far higher status than that but ultimately they are just people and should be subject to the same accountability as the rest of us. Some of them are wonderful people and some are not so wonderful. Some do their job well and some not so well. Just like the rest of us.

Surely when considering the matter of whether or not we should have the freedom to give birth in the way we choose we need to know the philosophies and practices of the people who are attending us during this time.

We don?t need or want to know if a particular woman made the right or wrong choice at some point in her labour. Women don?t ?fail? during birth ? not ever. Women experience birth in the most incredible number of different and unique ways.
We do, however, need to know if the birthing institutions and attendants have the same commitment to providing what is needed to facilitate a straightforward uncomplicated birth as they have to assisting when problems arise.

We do need to know if the number of caesareans being performed appears, overall, to be a reasonable number. We need to know if there are a lot of infections occurring in a hospital. We need to know if all babies are being given complimentary feeds without needing them. We need to know if women are being slapped and told to be quiet when they are in labour (yes this happened). We need to know if women are being given honest information about all the options available to them.
We have an absolute right to know everything there is to know about the place where we are going to give birth and the people who will be with us at that time.

We absolutely need to give all women the respect and love and support they need regardless of the circumstances of their birth.