A person can have HPV their whole life with absolutely no symptoms at all, and, not end up with cancer. I think you'd be surprised at the number of people that do have HPV if everyone were to be tested, and from a young age before any sexual contact. You would need to give nearly every birthing mother a c/s section to avoid passing on HPV to their babies. I really don't think that would be a good reason to have major surgery with a risk of complications and a whole lot of other disadvantages for mum and baby.
Not all strains of HPV lead to cancer either.
Yes I am aware of how common it is (and thats just the visual ones) as I work as a midwife. The thing is if it were really passed on during vaginal birth and it was one of the strains that causes cancer (I think there are only about 4 nasty strains that are responsible for the cervical cancer which is not many considering how many strains there are) then potentially you would be looking at young girls carry HPV and been at risk of cancer well before they are even at an age where they would be sexually active or able to have a papsmear. I was just saying I hadn't even heard about it been passed on like that although obviously it could be transmitted in the household by other means. If it truely was a risk then there would be some type of testing I would have thought to make sure women whom have a strain that causes cancer would not pass it on during birth (if that was a way you could get it). I certainly haven't heard of really young girls having HPV that affects the genitals before sexual contact.