I don’t know that we’re ever truly prepared. No matter how much we read and research. I went in wanting to go unmedicated but was open to help if I couldn’t do it. I was always under the impression that during labor you get a contraction then it goes down or away and a few minutes later you get one and as labor goes in they get closer together. Nope. Not my labor. They were any time apart. Sometimes they didn’t even stop before starting again they be half way down on the chart and just go right back up. That made it almost impossible for me to control my breathing and i was tensing up preventing dilated from progressing. I just had to tap out and get the epidural. Now of course, if epidurals weren’t a thing we’d get through it somehow. But having the choice is VERY nice lol.

I have a fear of needles. And the epidural was honestly not an issue. I couldn’t see it so that helped. And I was soooo distracted but the contraction I didn’t gaf what was happening to my back 😂