I would much rather have my baby in a hospital. I want to know that there is the staff and equipment available in case something were to go wrong. No, birth in and of itself is not a medical emergency but giving birth is definitely a medical risk, and it used to be very common for women to die during child birth.
While the c-section rate may be too high, it is important to remember that there are definitely situations were that intervention is necessary to either save the babies life or proper brain function. I have a cousin that is severely mentally handicapped due to a lack of oxygen in a situation where she should have been delivered by c-section. I was breach--the doctor tried to manually turn me but was unable to and my mom had a c-section.
I trust my OB, and will keep them if we decide to have a kid. I absolutely believe in being well informed on childbirth, but if I didn't trust my doctor enough to advise me on something as serious as a c-section, I wouldn't trust them enough to be my doctor, period.
ETA: One thing that bothers me a lot that seems to be a trend in the "natural parenting" movement is the assumption that a mother that chooses a hospital birth, with an epideral, etc., is simply not informed of her other options. There seems to be little room for the idea that perhaps said hospital birthing mother did her homework and decided this was the best route for her and her baby.