I had an epidural (I was "too relaxed" for other drugs). I wouldn't have another. I'm not up for sharing my story right now although it is in the labour and birth forum and in my pregnancy diary.

I guess labour didn't hurt me, pushing didn't hurt me, so drugs were something I had been constantly refusing all the day and I didn't need. If it is painful then it can help, ideally (and I had an ideal epidural) you don't feel the contractions but you do feel the birth canal, and the movement there tells you when to push so you aren't being dictated to (although your body has been hampered in giving birth so you have to think about pushing, it's not doing it "perfectly" without thinking as pre-drugs was). Although I was on a bed I was able to move around a little bit and the midwives held all the wires and drips and stuff so I could shuffle about and get comfortable for pushing. So I couldn't walk around but I wasn't on my back screaming IYKWIM.