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I was induced and did it naturally after my epidural failed.... I can't say I recommend it.

I was induced and ended up with an epidural but I was open to having one.

I had cervidil placed in the evening and by morning my water broke naturally. I was able to labor naturally until late afternoon when they started some pitocin and I got my epidural. If I had pushed them I probably would have been able to go without.

Not sure what I meant to say but spanked was not it Haha ...

I have a very high pain tolerance (for example, I broke my arm as a kid in a nearly compound fracture and wasn't sure it was broken), and with the pitocin, I needed an epidural for the last two hours of labor. Pitocin makes contractions unnaturally close together, longer and stronger and many women who have birthed both with and without it say it's much more painful with. My contractions were a minute long and 2-3 mins apart for hours-- it wears you down. My advice is to have an exercise ball to bounce and move in circles on. I also had back labor (which the epidural didn't end up touching) and so while on the ball, I had DH rub the base of my spine as hard as possible through every contraction. I kept telling myself, "ok get through 5 more contractions," and then once I did, I'd tell myself I could do 5 more. For some reason counting helped a lot. Even with all of the pain, it was the coolest experience of my life and I'd be happy to do it the same way next time, pitocin and all. Good luck!

I have a friend that did it. She was on pitocin for hours and pushed for four hours without an epidural. She had taken the Bradley method classes and she said she barely got through it but she did it! So it can be done.

For me, I am going to try to have a natural birth without pitocin, but if I have to be induced I might go with an epidural because from what I'm reading it is so much harder once they start the pitocin.

I was first induced with cervadil. I labored on that for 12 hours with no pain meds, and it was tough but doable. Sadly, I didn't progress, and the next step was a foley catheter induction. Which worked and saved me a csection, but there is no way in hell I'd suggest that without pain meds.

My policy was - natural birth, no meds. Women are built to give birth. When my birth became unnatural, I wasn't interested in suffering that. I got a 'king sized' epidural. That didn't work very well, but still. Better than nothing.

I think it depends on how your induction goes, if the gel/ balloon gets your labour going and it progresses well so you don't need the pitocin to move the process along, you may not need an epi. I also think it depends on how long the labour takes, as others have mentioned you may be so exhausted you need it.

I was induced and opted for the epi after 30 hours, just couldn't deal with the increasing pain due to exhaustion.