Why are we so quick to induce labor?

With my due date quickly approaching, as I lie in bed struggling with insomnia, I find myself looking up ways to naturally induce labor .  I have come across plenty of articles about taking walks, eating spicy food, and the like, but I have also come across many articles discussing medical induction.  It had me thinking about the process and the logic behind it, so I did some more research.

What is induction, you ask, and how does it work?  In simple terms, when a doctor and/or mom decide that a pregnancy is ready to come to an end, for whatever reason that may be, a woman is given pitocin to force contractions and lead to labor.  From what I have seen, though, if the baby is not truly ready to enter the world, induction does not always work.  Just like natural labor, the process of induction is a guess.  A baby could be born in a matter or hours, or even days after pitocin is administered.  The pitocin may make no difference at all.

So why are doctors (and moms for that matter) so quick to want to induce when a baby hasn't arrived before it's due date?  At 39 weeks 2 days, I find myself feeling pressured into being induced, and essentially forcing this little boy to enter the world before he decides he is ready.  At my appointment yesterday, I was asked how miserable I was.  Considering I was miserable at the end of my previous pregnancy, I am feeling pretty good, despite the constant pressure and hip pain.  Isn't that all part of the experience, though?  Who are we to decide that we've suffered enough and that our precious unborn child should potentially suffer simply because we have had enough of being pregnant?  What is a few more days in the grand scheme of things?

From the beginning of my pregnancy, I knew that I wanted to go into the labor process drug-free, not to prove to anyone that I could do it, but simply because I know how much quicker the recovery process would be as I had done it once before.  I don't want to deal with the potential side effects associated with pitocin and induction.  I don't want to go to the hospital feeling as though I have prepared for surgery, empty stomach and all.  I don't want to be hooked up to an IV, unable to get out of bed and move around to ease the pain of contractions.  I don't want to feel obligated to get an epidural just because "every one does it" or because the pain is too intense from the drugs.

So again I ask, why are we as a society so quick to induce in this day and age?  What happened to the good ole' days of natural childbirth?