I def agree with the pp's who say that being educated and informed make the difference.

I had a positive, although difficult, first labour. I researched the options open to me (don't have private cover) and chose to do midwifery group practive in a birth centre attached to a hospital (ie it was two rooms, at one end of the labour&delivery unit). Had I gone the obs/private route, I think my labour would have been a completly different story. If you know you want to avoid intervention etc, then its best to inform yourself and find a place that supports this.

In my case, DD's labour from my waters breaking to her being born was around 30 hours, although probably only 15hours of this was classed as real labour. Nothing much happened in the first 15hours, but luckily my mw left me to it at home. Once things got going, she visited me at home and tried to encourage me to stay there even longer, but I was anxious and nervous so we headed into hospital. DD was posterior so got stuck and I was pushing for 2.5hours. During this time, the mw monitored DD's hb but was never concerned so again let me just get on with it. She even at one point talked me out of forceps when I asked her to "just pull the baby out"!

I really think that it was the good relationship I had with the mw, the model of care, and DH's support that meant that I got to have a natural birth. As I said, if I'd have gone the obs route, I probably would have been said to be 'failure to progress' or whatever they called it, and it would have ended up with some form of intervention.

Good luck in getting the birth you want!