I read a bunch of midwifery books that said tears can be prevented with proper preparation... like you take some sort of oil and lube up the perineum and do daily stretching to make it more flexible (it recommended getting assistance from teh baby daddies) and then there are actual exercises a girl can do to tighten muscles down there and make everything tight... I don't think vag births necessarily mean floppy vags and personally, I'd do whatever I could to prevent getting cut open, to me that's the worst, because afterwards you're left with a baby and a major surgery to heal from. No thanks!
Then again, I'd prefer babies to hatch from pods and already be like 2-3 years old, but we haven't advanced that far scientifically yet.