Your experience doesn't sound typical at all.
You seemed to be progressing naturally and had got to 6 cm. My doctors and MWs wouldn't have broken the waters unless labour was showing signs of being slow, not progressing (it would be done to jump start things and not for no reason at all as the baby needs to be delivered within 24 hours of waters breaking due to infection risk). They wouldn't have set you up on pitocin as you were afaics progressing nicely and your waters had just been broken so they would have waited to see how you took it from there once your waters broke. And you probably didn't need the drip either. What your MW did sounds really bizarre and not explainable from a medical pov. Pulling on the cord sounds downright dangerous. Are you sure the person who attended you wasn't a janitor?
I had 5 babies in the US, 4 in one hospital with the same group of doctors attending and one in another hospital with a MW group. The first hospital (a university hosp) delivered 500 babies a month in summer, and doctors were trailed around by groups of medical students; I had a big audience for the delivery of DS (a midafternoon arrival) so some students could see a ventouse in action. Nice in a way to have a room full of genuinely happy people all staring at my rear end when he finally saw the light of day, but strange too... The second (a community hosp) delivered a smaller number but was close to a very deprived area so lots of sick and premature babies 
, lots of CSs and a big NICU. MWs tended to deliver a lot of the care for 'normal' pregnancies and deliveries there.
I think getting a canula in for a drip is done in a lot of US hospitals, whether the drip goes in or not. They don't let you eat anything once you're admitted to L&D mainly in case you need general anesthesia for a CS or any other problem that might arise. My Drs and MWs also said no nail polish or makeup and this is for anesthesia purposes too, to enable visual monitoring. The saline drip might be needed for a long labour, just to keep you hydrated.
Shaving, enemas, etc., are all ancient history now I know someone who asked for an enema in early labour because she was mortified about pooping while pushing, and the nurses were very surprised. And a lot of women arrive at the hospital with Brazilians they have inflicted on themselves nowadays a friend who is an L&D nurse reported this to me (we are both a little old for this sort of malarkey, we feel, but many young mums arrive at the hospital bald as eggs).
One good thing about prenatal and L&D care in the US is that you will usually be attended at delivery by someone you have seen during your prenatal care, and even if you are primarily attended by hospital nurses, the doctor or MW will be there or thereabouts and will be reported to. Most hospitals have one on one nursing care while you're in labour. How good this is depends on the person involved. You can choose your medical professionals too, depending on insurance of course. Your choice of doctor essentially means you go to the hospital he or she has admitting privileges in though, so ask what hospital they have admitting privileges in before picking a doctor or MW.
A good few hospitals want constant monitoring during labour but this can be negotiated, as can things like your position during labour and delivery, what sort of pain relief you want, etc. You get the chance to talk with your med team before the delivery and it's important to discuss the whys and wherefores of everything that might happen, because things can change during labour, and a good deal of what your body does and what your baby's body does is outside of your control. DD1's birthing suite birth plan (with the birthing ball, pool, etc) changed when her heartbeat began fluctuating wildly and meconium appeared in my waters..
Go to prenatal classes in the hospital you'll be delivering in, not elsewhere, because the instructor will be familiar with protocols there and you can then discuss things knowledgeably with your medical team. Depending on risk factors, you can negotiate what you want. Ask especially about pain relief and whether an epidural will be available if you want one. (There is no shame in having pain relief during labour, and no shame in changing your mind either. You will not receive a medal for endurance. You will feel exhilirated and wonderful afterwards no mater what even if you have a CS).
Please remember if you don't want any particular medical procedure, you don't have to assent to it, and included in the definition of medical procedure is having a drip, having an epidural, etc. It's a good idea to have a birth partner who knows your preferences and will speak up for you, not just nod dumbly when the staff want to do various things. Your partner can dig in his/her heels and 'just say no'. The staff can't force you to have anything done that you don't want.
It's important to ask little practical questions like availability of valet parking when you go on your hospital visit. The woman who shared a room with me after DD3 was born hadn't known about the valet parking service, where you just wheel up to the emergency entrance, hand your keys to the valet and then they take your car off to park it, while you and your partner get taken into the hospital. This woman had ended up unable to walk any further on the 8th floor of the carpark and had to be rescued by paramedics with a stretcher -- her DH had to leave her and run off to find the carpark emergency phone near the lifts, and it all sounded horrific, as her baby turned out to be breech.
I have to say I don't get this 'US birth is over-clinical' thing, except in the case of the shunning of homebirths. My sister who gave birth in Dublin had a horrible experience from mean, unkind and over-stretched nurses who had a chip on their shoulders against women in general and new mothers in particular. She had a crowded and dirty ward, horrible loos -- I had two experiences of sharing a room with one other mother and baby, three private rooms with just myself and baby, and a clean and private, or shared by one other person, shower/loo each time.
With the exception of one psycho nurse, I found nothing but kindness and professionalism among the medical staff I encountered in the US for L&D with all 5 DCs. Practices vary among doctors -- mine had a horror of overdue babies and induced me based on calendar dates and estimated size, for DS, but I persuaded them to leave me to go into labour naturally for DD2.