Mel, I had an OK time for the first 28 hours of labour - I would say fantastic, but sometimes midwives appeared and whinged at me and told me off. The last five hours were fairly crap. I've been told by another midwife for that trust that they didn't listen to me ("I am in labour." "I'm not in pain." "I am aware of drugs, I don't want them at the moment, it really doesn't hurt." "I am going to push because that's what my body is doing and you've just said I'm fully dialated.") because it was my first time. So maybe the first time is worse not because of the mother being unprepared, but because of the expectations of the midwives to just treat you as an idiot and not listen to a word you say.