There was a scandal in italy a while ago because in a certain hospital they were doing an abnormal number of c-sections, because it counts as surgery and they get paid more from the state.
I wouldn't advocate for routine c-sections and it is still surgery with all the risk that entails, but if you're not generally prone to scarring, the optimal outcome for a c-section can be far more predictable and doesn't have to involve a "huge scar over [your] guts".
That all heals with no real differences, but some women have issues with their pelvic floor and postpartum bleeding. I think some of that is mitigated by a c-section.
In some countries, an involuntary C-section (because of complications) becomes also prohibitively expensive, so people opt for the voluntary one to risk-manage.
It’s less black and white for me now.
Well, speaking in a universal sense, delivery is super painful. If you don't get an epidural. Think "fall down while standing because the pain is overwhelming" painful.
Once you get the epidural, you can sleep during contractions.
As I understood they do not go for a c-section until shit hits the fan or the mother has a precondition which required a planned c-section.
Unlike dentists we had a good experience with gyn and the delivery hospital. We had a pretty complicated delivery, which required suction of baby, I remember thinking at this point they would take her to surgery. But nope the head nurse got the suction thingy and did her magic as I watched through.
This was totally different from India where C-section is the very very common, We had couple of babies at the same time in family and all those in India had c-section, It's not random.
One thing I did not like was there were very limited beds in delivery section, which means the hospital did not admit till there is 4 inch dilation.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/10/key-points-s...
Giving birth by any means is though. My wife had a caesarian delivery (as a medical intervention when the natural way turned out to be impossible), but recovered as fast as you would from giving birth the natural way (the scar is pretty much invisible too by now).
So no, not everyone who has had one will assert that they are huge life disrupting procedures. They are medical procedures, and generally should not be performed if not needed because of a slightly higher risk of complications, but they are not normally life disrupting (the baby on the other hand is).