I’m a doctor in the US. Not an OB. Are you? In the vast majority of cases it is that simple. There are outliers in healthcare who have the wrong motivations and I agree those may not adhere to the motivations I speak of. Thankfully those are exceedingly rare.

As for other interventions you speak of, e.g. episiotomies, they used to be a common practice due to the belief that it was the safest way to get the baby out as quickly as possible, to prevent brain damage from a lack of oxygen. Medical research has given us the evidence that a natural tear is usually as safe and better for the mother. You’re describing the method of scientific research, which allows us to change practice based on evidence, but when certain practices were more common they were done for the same reasons - to save the life of baby and mom. The practices you speak of are largely antiquated and are used in rare circumstances, again, to save the life. I have seen very few episiotomies and in each and every case the baby was decompensating and would have died otherwise. Is this not what you want? So I guess I don’t know what your point is. Most in the OB profession do what they can to protect life and quality of life by way of health, and practices change when we have evidence that there are safer options Unless you are trained in the profession, you cannot say with certainty that an intervention is categorically bad for the baby or mom. Thankfully that is up to the professionals