Great short and to the point article at CNN today about 5 ways to avoid a c-section.
Here are their five ways:
- Don’t get induced unless medically necessary
- Labor at home until you’re approximately 3 centimeters dilated
- Choose your hospital, and your practitioner, carefully
- In the delivery room, ask questions if your practitioner says you need a C-section
- Get a doula (my personal favorite)
Check out the piece for more explanation about why each step helps to deter c-sections.
Radical Doula 
Number 5 is especially important if the doctor recommends the c-section late in labor when you are perhaps just not in a place to have a logical discussion about it. I ended up with a c-section, and I feel like I might not have asked enough questions , but because my doula was there with me asking questions, I’m confident that if there was a way to avoid it (given the doctor and the hospital–see 3), we would have.