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[quote=Anonymous]Everyone experiences labor and birth differently. I have had two unmedicated births and one induction/epidural. I hated the medicated birth and had great experiences with the other two. Labor honestly was not all that painful for me, until transition and pushing (which were incredibly painful) -- and by then it's too late to do anything about it, you have to just push through it and get the baby out. Contractions felt like strong menstrual cramps for me. I know from hearing other women talk about their experiences that plenty of women experience labor as very very painful. Personally I cannot imagine electing to have an epidural with a non-induced labor unless it went on for a very long time and I needed to sleep. The pain just is not severe enough. Whereas pitocin plus amniotomy made it feel like my uterus was exploding -- totally different sensations. (Of course I also went from 3cm to 10 in about 2 hours after my water was broken, so that may have had something to do with it). But the epidural ... yuck. I hated the numbness in my legs, hated not being able to feel to push efficiently, and had back pain at the site for almost a year after that birth. I didn't notice a big difference in the recovery time, but my milk came in a day or two later than it had after my second unmedicated birth and I do attribute that to the interventions. Personally an epidural would be a last resort for me, but like I said, every woman's experience is different. My advice to women going into labor is to be flexible -- there is no need to make a decision about the epidural until you are in the moment because you don't know how you will feel in advance. [/quote]

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