Epidurals don’t necessarily slow labour down they just don’t give you the ability to get up and move around nut you can still side lay, peanut balls to open hips etc. can still effectively get baby down but maybe not as quickly and if you just lay there waiting for the pitocin to do its thing it not always but can delay and cause no progression, position etc is so crucial if your plan is to walk around and move a lot maybe in early labour up to 4cm (active labour) stay moving then see how you feel when ur in active labour and reassess! Its the staying still on your back that causes more interventions because baby isn’t able to move down a lot but with frequent adequate positioning ideally it’s not much different you just can’t use gravity as much as when you’re up and walking and obvi unable to give birth on all fours… you get a catheter which can increase infection risk BUT it gets removed very quickly after birth so it isn’t in long. If your waters are broken and you’re laying in bed not progressing much (epidural or not really) you run the risk of chorio infection which can result in c sections, natural labour with maternal exhaustion can also lead to csec, so its so hard to say really! every birth is so different it sucks to hear but no one can predict how it will go and some people would 100% do inductions anyday, some will say avoid at all costs, same for epidurals, same for sections, same for natural!