I have had an epidural with both my labours. Both babies have been OP. With my first labour, I had been going with 3 - 5 min apart contractions for 38 hours and had not slept (even pethidine was not easing the pain enough to sleep) and only dialated to 7cm. My body seemed to stopped dialating for a few hours at 7cm so I had the epi and within 2 hours my dd was born with no further intervention. (1 more hour of labour till I was 10cm dialated and then about 45 mins of pushing).

With my 2nd labour I was induced and had the epi because they wanted to put me on a drip to keep my contractions going. I barely had to push with my ds. He worked his way down the birth canal by himself. When they went to give me an internal his head was halfway out. So 2 pushes and ds was born.

Both my epi experiences were very good.