Both of my births had long pre-labour, but my first stopped at 5cms and the drip was put up. I was more exhausted after that birth than my second which involved no induction or epidural, I didn't feel like I had given birth the second time around! I got up and had a shower after having no drugs at all, and felt awesome, awake and ecstatic. Having had an epidural with my first, the pushing was a bit of a shock from crowning onwards (as I often find with my clients who give birth after a previous epidural) as I hadn't felt it before, nor the urge to push. So after I got over the shock, I felt so incredibly amazing and as Bec said, like a woman in every sense of the word. I did it and I felt strong and ready to take on the world. It's truly a rite of passage, giving birth. You'll never come out of it the same person.