Thats fair, I didn’t pick up on your use of the word “elective”. But vaginal births have twice the incidence of urinary stress incontinence, overactive bladder and pelvic organ prolapse. There is also a risk of tearing of the vagina, and even tears that extend into the anus [2]. If I could choose a surgery that would prevent tearing of my genitalia, at the cost of money pain and possibly other complications somewhere away from my genitalia, I might well choose that - one might even say that a woman should have the right to choose.

It seems weird that we think that the WHO, an organization run mostly by men [3] would somehow know the “correct” rate at which women should risk urinary incontinence and genital injuries - why wouldn’t we let the patients decide with the assistance of their doctors?

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2718794 [2] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/labor-and-deliv... [3] https://apps.who.int/gb/gov/en/composition-of-the-board_en.h...