@Bearbunch happy to DM if helpful.
I thought I might want a section from the get go (maternal history, stature, slightly older FTM) and was lucky to have a midwife who gave me space and support to keep my options open. She was clear about "my body, my choice". This gave me confidence to wait until later in pregnancy to decide and because she was cool about it I avoided a lot of unnecessary back and forth with the maternal mental health team to talk about my "anxiety" as a result. But mainly I could not get comfortable with my personal likelihood of tearing / epis / need for forceps / emergency section anyway and the potential long term effects of the same, although I was told by many at the time and very much realise these things are not uncommon and many many people who experience them are happy with their delivery outcomes.
I went back and forth throughout pregnancy and at about six months went forward to the consultant to discuss elective section. He palmed me off to a registrar who spent an hour being very patronising about the source of my information (in fact, it was @MNHQ 2018 campaign for greater transparency in reporting long-term vaginal birth injury that kicked off my research, and I knew - sadly - they would laugh me out of the room if I admitted that, so I took care to cite the NHS patient information leaflets, NICE guidelines etc. as well). I stuck to my guns, persistently reiterating that - for me - my interpretation of the risks and the statistics for my own situation led me to prefer a section. She wrote me up as undecided and at the time I was content to agree we'd wait to see how big the baby was / position etc as long as the door would remain open to me to choose the section.
We repeated this process at 37 weeks, again meeting booked with the consultant and palmed off to a reg after a 6h wait in triage, and it went the same way. She was pushy, persuasive, told me she'd push (not helpfully, since I had explained my concerns were personal to me, and slightly gave away that she hadn't really listened)... I left the room again having said I'd think it through and saw my midwife the following week, who was - as ever - kind, supportive and immediately got on with booking my section.
The exact rules are interpreted differently by each NHS trust - some just allow maternal request elective sections (meaning you have no clinical need for one); many will only put you forward for one subject to certain conditions, and commonly this means writing you up as showing undue anxiety about vaginal delivery and referring you to the maternal mental health team in pregnancy to see if they can get you comfortable with the idea of vaginal delivery. I was realistic that this might happen to me and made my peace with going through that process if I had to, not caring really what they wrote about me and focused on the outcome I wanted, but I was lucky my midwife didn't put me through all that and my trust was less of a battle (but still a battle!!).
What you have to remember is that the whole team is under pressure to reduce section rates (don't get me started on that) nationwide, and that context helps a bit to tolerate the resistance, however much you meet with, although it can be patronising, off topic and infuriating. Those registrars had to go back to their consultant and explain to him why they failed to talk me out of my maternal request elective section, in the name of their targets, and I get that they had a job to do. BUT, and this is a very very long post to get to the critical point, ALL THAT MATTERS is that you have the experience you want - so prepare yourself in case it's a battle, hope for a supportive midwife but stick to your guns and you'll get there.
PS - my section was utterly utterly amazing. 28 mins, DS born 11 mins in, team were fabulous, kind, upbeat, on it, I didn't feel at all judged on the day, never needed anyone to pass me my baby (although took care to move slowly and carefully), I showered that night (with DH's help, not my glammest moment), home on day 2, really couldn't say I felt "pain" although the first few days aren't that comfy if you let your ibuprofen lapse (DON'T!! And accept the Oramorph too!!) and was doing the laundry / walking the dog on day 5, when my single stitch came out. Scar is 5" long and barely there a year on. The things you hear about sections are very very very commonly about emergency ones and they're a different beast (and depending on a range of specific factors, elective section is frequently the safer choice than vaginal delivery for the baby, it certainly was for us anyway).
Best of luck with your decision and your pregnancy x