It’s not that bad. My epidural stopped working hours before I started pushing and i wasn’t allowed a new one or whatever. It really wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. It just burned really bad like if you were to burn yourself on a hot pan and have it not process so you don’t move your hand for a while.... then as soon as the baby pops out it’s fine again. You can tear during birth with or without the epidural the epidural just lets you not feel it lol. Also if you do tear and need stitches you’ll feel those but that’s NOTHING it felt like I was being pinched. My tip..BREATH. It was so hard for me to not breath right so it made it harder for me to get him out I was pushing back to back and he was coming out to fast it was chaos but every once in a while I got my breathing straight and it would feel idk easier? I guess.