Informed decision-making

When looking into options for care-providers for this delivery, I discovered that the Queensland Centre for Mothers and Babies have a website,www.havingababy.org.au/birthplace.  I was having a look at the responses to various questions, and looking at the 9 hospitals within a 25km radius of where I live (mix of public, private and birth centres):

Did the women who had an induction of labour say they made an informed decision? Range 14-46% said yes.
Did the women who had a caesarean section that was scheduled in advance make an informed decision? Range 43-61%

Which I find remarkable.  These are decisions being made before the birth, and still, AT MOST, less than half of women who were induced felt they that was the result of an informed decision, and less than 2/3 of those having a scheduled caesarian felt that was an informed decision.

To me, there is something wrong there.  These are decisions being made in advance, when there is absolutley no reason why the health professionals and patients involved shouldn't be discussing these things, and gathering information, and enabling these decisions to be informed. 

The statistics are even more upsetting when looking at decisions being made during labour, when opportunities for discussion may be more limited:

Did the women who had a caesarean section that was not scheduled in advance make an informed decision? Range 11-31% said yes

Did the women who had an episiotomy say they made an informed decision? Range 0-13%. 

That's right.  In the hospitals in my area, one had 0% of women surveyed said they had made an informed decision regarding having an episiotomy.  Zip.  Zilch.  None.  Most of the hospitals were in the ball park of 2-3%.  Even the highest rate of informed consent was mostly due to low numbers of respondents, with 2 women out of 15 (hence the 13%) saying they had made an informed decision.

And people roll their eyes at me when I say that one of my biggest concerns about the birth is fear I won't be kept informed, or made a part of the clinical decision-making regarding things happening to MY body.