My first 3 were hospital births. The first two were I guess okay, all went according to plan. My third was a disaster. The OB I had advised a birth plan, when I put it together I asked if I could refuse induction, she said no. I was shocked then asked if I came in active labor and ready to push would they still give me pitocin, she again said yes with "Pitocin is standard, doesn't matter when in your labor you come in, we automatically give it to you."
I had planned an unassisted childbirth from then on but when I went into labor I labored as long as I could before giving into going into a near by hospital. It wasn't the same hospital but the same group, so they had my records. I had my daughter in an hour with no meds. I did ask her right after the baby was born that I wanted to wait till the cord stopped pulsating to cut it. She agreed but then to my shock she decided to milk the cord, a practice shunned by many in the medical community. My baby was screaming for hours after that.
with my 4th, I chose to have him at a freestanding birth center, It was the most amazing experience, yes my labor was longer then my previous ones but still the care I received from my midwife was amazing. she knew exactly what to do and say to help me get through. She asked while I was pregnant what my dream L & D was and I told her a candle lit room with 80's music playing and a waterbirth. When I went into labor, she got on the ball and started lighting candle and started my 80's compilation from my Ipod. I had my waterbirth. It was so perfect. Oh he came out while "Love shack" was playing. LOL
I'm planning another freestanding birth center birth with this baby as well.

Do lots of research, read Ina Mays books. Be prepared on how to deal with pain. Don't do lamaze it just sets you up for failure IMO. Counter pressure is the key. Its easy to say "natural Childbirth" but you have to be mentally prepared. I've seen many Birth shows where they have (hospital) midwifes and they're sometime no different from doctors who are just interested in catching the baby. But even then I've had a couple friends deliver by a midwife in a hospital (same group I had when I had #3, Kaiser) and they had a good experience.
When you do get pregnant, Ask lots of questions on what they do to relieve pain when its natural....no meds. And what's their transfer rate as well.

That was true about my experience with the CNM who attended my oldest child's birth in a hospital. She was definitely a "medwife" as some call them.

Chiming in -- I had my daughter at home without incident -- labor (well, hard labor) was only around 5 hours, pushed for 20 minutes, mama and baby are fine (she is 4 now)....and I was obese at the time (over 300 lbs).

Our bodies were designed to do this, after all (not to negate the emergencies that do come up) -- but in cases of low risk women, birthing at home is as safe as delivering in a hospital according to the British Journal Of Medicine and loads of other research.

My 3rd was a birth center birth, I highly recommend it. Hospitals are big nasty germ factories!

A great documentary to watch is "The Business of Being Born"

OP - I know you may not think they did the right thing by having her have a C section...but please know that a baby's heartrate dropping can be an extremely serious emergency.

I have 2 children, who are both healthy. However, when my first daughter dropped into the birth canal, her heart rate dropped...they repositioned me, which helped at first, but the heartrate kept dropping. It turned out that when she moved (not due to any medical intervention...just a cruelty of nature sometimes)...the umbilical cord slipped around her neck. She was already too far down for a c-section...so the dr. basically had to reach up and cut the cord from around her neck before she was even out. I thank God that we were in a hospital, where the problem was detected immediately, and handled so quickly and effectively that my daughter is absolutely perfect!!

I completely respect those of you who do your research and choose to have alternative births. I just urge you to make sure that whatever method you choose provides for close monitoring of fetal condition. It's great for the mother to be happy and comfortable...but getting that baby out healthy far outweights ANY amount of discomfort. The thing is, you just don't know if an emergency is going to happen until it just does. With me, there was no way to know that the cord would wrap like that. I don't mean to scare anyone, and I have no idea what the odds are of this happening...I'd have to guess fairly slim. But you just don't want to take unnecessary risk with something so precious!!