BTW I recommend the epidural 10 fold my baby was not coming out after hours and hours of labor I made it to 9cm dilated and there was no break at all between contractions and she just wasn't coming out. my body was so tired I could effectively push at . if I had epidural from the beginning I could have skipped all that suffering and had a much better experience. my baby's head ended up turning sideways instead of down and she just wouldn't turn. I was scared to birth at the hospital I did a birthing center with midwives and my husband ended up driving me to the hospital at 9cm and thank god they called ahead and they were able to get me an epidural within a half hour. my body was just so tired and the baby wasn't ready so I got to sleep for like 5 hours and then they gave me a small amount of pitocin to make my uterus contract harder because my body was so worn out the pitocin made the contractions hurt so I got my epidural turned up and some other narcotic. I was pain free until the very end after several hours of more pushing i was tired. when I pushed her out I was saying I couldnt do it but they could see her head and 20 min later she was out :) so seriously epidural I'm telling you.