I'm another one who felt totally respected by my hospital - so much so that despite moving closer another hospital I prefer to travel an extra 10 minutes to get my old one.
Just a couple of weeks ago I had an experience there which really made me think a bit about women's agency in childbirth and the assumptions that many people have that birth outcomes are the fault of the hospital/model of care.

I was a bit worried because bubs had been very still so I went for some monitering (some might consider it an 'intervention' but it made me feel much happier - bless modern technology ). In the rooms at the delivery suite you can hear the conversations in the corridor outside. So..... I was lieing back listing to bub's heartbeat and I over heard this conversation between a midwife (MW) and patient (P)
MW- Are you out of the shower already - you were only in there for a second
P- I didn't want to stay in
MW- OK did I explain why I suggested a shower (midwife explains the benefits of shower for pain killing and remaining upright for speeding up labour). Would you like to get back in?
P-No I want an epidural
MW- OK I can arrange that but did you know that they can cause problems?
P- I don't care
They went back into the patient's room at this stage so I couldn't eavesdrop on the rest of the conversation but as the door shut the nurse was explaining the procedure

The thing that I was thinking after overhearing this was that despite the midwife trying to encourage this woman to have an active birth it was quite obvious by the tone in her voice that she was determined to have an epidural. In any civilised society she has every right to make that choice - as a woman she should have contol over her birthing experience and the role of the hospital is to facilitate that choice even if it may not be within thier philosophy. To deny her the choice would be a hideous infringment on her rights akin to violent abuse.
To me the important factor was that it was her choice - she didn't want to go through the pain and she chose to take the risks of an epidural instead. When we complain about the amount of intervention in Australain hospitals it seems to me that we often lay the blame on the hospital and by doing this we insult women such as this patient. She had a choice and she excercised it despite the midwife's gentle efforts to encourage her towards a non-interventional birth. She had probably heard from her friends and family how wonderful epidurals were. I know that I have been to get an epidural by a number of people. So...... I geuss the points that I am making are that
1)its too simplistic just to blame care providers for the high rates of interventions in Australia - to do so is ignoring the fact that women can and do make choices
2)that hospitals offer choices that we may not agree with but other people may wish to take these options - not to offer these choices would IMO be totalitarian and barbaric.

In terms of poor outcomes I'm not sure that I regard the fact that the majority of births in Australia result in a healthy baby and mother as a poor outcome - perhaps there less traumatic ways of achieving this outcome but just so long as the end result is healthy mums and bubs that's enough for me.

The WHO on the whole is far more concerned with the reduction of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity in the developing world, where 98% of these deaths occur than with rates of intervention in Australia. To do this thier goal is to ensure that every woman has access to essential obstetric care which they define as
Essential obstetric care

Essential obstetric care is the term used to describe the elements of obstetric care needed for the management of normal and complicated pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period.

Essential Obstetric Care is defined for two different levels of the health care system:

Basic essential obstetric care services at the health centre level should include at least the following:
• parenteral antibiotics
• parenteral oxytocic drugs
• parenteral sedatives for eclampsia
• manual removal of placenta
• manual removal of retained products

Comprehensive essential obstetric care services at the district hospital level (first referral level) should include all the above plus
• surgery
• anaesthesia, and
• blood transfusion.

For the services at a facility to be considered functional, the elements of care must have been provided during the 6 months previous to data collection.
Ironically enough much of this ensures that the interventions that we in the developed world can afford to be so hoity toity about are available.

jojo, sorry to go on so much - I tend to ramble.
If you wish to avoid the induction you can request that they give you a U/S to check that bubs is OK and if there are no issues then refuse the induction.