There is a comment in this thread somewhere about allowing yourself to labor naturally for as long as possible (staying at home is a good way to avoid intervention if you're going to do that). And, if you need an epidural, know that it's there. I went into the whole labor event with a "play it by ear" philosophy, but knew I was also working with a conservative OB who liked c-sections. I labored HARD at home and immediately jumped into full blown minute-long contractions every 3 minutes (or whatever the goal number is). After I'd puked too much and there was fear of dehydration, I went to the hospital, and when they'd told me I'd only dilated another cm after all that, I was a bit dejected and kind of gave up. That's why I got the epidural, and it ended up being the best thing (like I posted above, it relaxed me enough to dilate wide open). I actually was in labor a total of 22 hours (but progressed very nicely; my water broke naturally and they let me labor down once I was fully dilated, so that added to the time.) If I hadn't gotten the epidural, I would have been too exhausted to push and would have had the c-section for sure. As it was, I pushed for 2 1/2 hours. I think one of the huge deterrents that I'd read about epidurals was that it lengthens labor, but also makes pushing less effective bc you can't feel that urge to push. What nobody told me was that they can turn down the epidural once you are ready to push, and you can feel the contractions. I felt an urge to push (it's a very weird phenomenon) and pushed hard with my contractions. It was actually a very good way to experience the cool parts of labor (I got a good taste of the pain, and then also that urge to push), but eliminated a big chunk of the crappy part.