It is very easy to say during pg that 'yes I do want drugs' or 'no I don't'.
Absolutely, and that's why in my article, Mission: Natural Birth, it discusses your reasoning behind your desire for a natural birth. In some circumstances, it's not going to hold you in labour, and some will, but your motivations and how much you've researched your options play a huge part on if you decide to have drugs or not in labour.

My birth teacher who has been a Birth Attendant and educator for 26 years (attended over 1000 births) has created a chart, which has six different descriptions of birthing women, from those who want no pain and whatever intervention, to those who want no intervention and no pain relief - so one extreme to the other. One of the groups is the 'wait and see' group, and she describes it like this... "She waited... she saw... she didn't like!" Every midwife that has seen her model completely agrees with her and the predictions of each group, that it's very accurate. Of course, some of us can be in the mind of a natural birth and go with the flow - but this model is designed with those in mind who don't really research anything or have no other thoughts that, we'll see what happens. It's an amazing model and I could even find an accurate description of myself with my first too!

But no matter what, it's those in your circle around you that play a HUGE role in what you can do. The encouragement, confidence and stamina of your support people is contagious and if you can offer that energy to the mother she is very capable of birthing normally. I think too many of us don't have this great support and don't realise how much of a difference it really makes.

A note on the TENS machine - you can't use it in water and if you have a caeser - so that's the only downside. If you can get into a tub from 7cms, it's amazing what it can do for the birth.