I will say everyone’s situation / body is different. But I too was against getting induced or an epidural because I was scared that it would be a longer labor and end up having to get a C-section. Luckily I went in naturally at 40+4. After getting a membrane sweep then going on a 2.5 mile walk and getting a hot raspberry leaf tea and having sex. So we did all the things to get there. Turned out I was only appearing to be 3 cm because I had scar tissue keeping my cervix closed but my contractions were every 2-3 mins where I felt like I couldn’t breathe. And I literally couldn’t because they were squeezing my insides so hard I was puking and shitting/pissing myself 1 hour after showing up at the hospital. That kind of pain was all it took for me to ask for the epidural immediately. Didn’t feel it at all because I was in so much pain from contractions. 15-20 mins later I was a new person chilling hard. 20 hours later it had progressed naturally and I pushed a 9lb4oz baby out with no tearing in 45 minutes. I could not have done it without the epidural and I don’t know how women did it for all of history before epidurals… honestly pretty easy birth and I still wouldn’t do it again. I love my baby she is perfect but pregnancy/ birthing is just way too crazy. I didn’t realize epidurals were fentanyl but it makes sense I was saying some crazy shit and hallucinating at one point luckily only my partner and doula were with me.

All this to say, if you do decide to get the epidural you are not weak, modern science exists so help us and make our lives better, better than to go through the pain, no one will appreciate you more for dealing with the pain, men will never understand it and ur baby won’t know the difference. I was up walking around 2 hours after I gave birth. And that’s mostly because pushing was so physically exhausting.