contractions were awful. then I got the epidural when I was dilated to a 4 or 5. after that it was a breeze but I did have 2nd degree tearing & was in pain for about a month after I gave birth.

As @beebaby said, every delivery is different for everyone. You could have an entirely different experience than that of one of us. With my first, my epidural didn't work. At all. It wasn't that it "went bad" but my daughter was descending into my sciatic nerve & essentially blocked my epidural. I also had an episiotomy to prevent tearing. My labor was 9+ hours & my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart from the moment my water broke. I was given pitocin to help aide in my labor because I was dehydrated & over my due date when I got to the hospital & my delivery was tough. I'm about to have my 2nd & I've opted to try having him without an epidural because of how I carry & also because of my previous experience (it's very uncommon that the epidural not work entirely but because of my previous labor, the likelihood of having the same thing happen to me is high.) But regardless of what happens in the delivery room, your body will know what you need & you'll get through it! No need to stress yourself out worrying about the "what if's" because when it comes down to it there isn't a whole lot you'll be able to do to stop the inevitable.