Jan Barger - you are so right that things are the way they are because it is to the advantage of docs, hospitals, insurance companies and the all-important bottom line. What I can't figure out is why birthing women are so submissive and complicit in their own victimization. BTW, I love the "no pain, no gain" analogies. There are so many more women involved in serious sports now compared to when I had my babies. They look forward to the strain and challenge and triumph of competitive running (or biking or mtn. climbing or whatever), but they believe they need drugs to rescue them from uterine contractions. Somebody is selling these women a bill of goods and they are buying into it bigtime. Why?