Your body isn't designed to labour hard from 0 dilation which is why most women don't cope well and end up with epidurals and c/s. If you are post-dates, trust your body, in the time you wait, your cervix will start to thin and efface and do all the work that the drugs are designed to do, but your body does it slowly, in its own time so you can cope. Much harder to cope when your body is forced to do something sooner than its supposed to at an intensity which is stronger than is meant to. But also you have to remember while you have an epi and might not feel it, your baby still does. The contractions are faster, harder and longer and your baby will be deprived of oxygen longer and is being compressed longer, stronger and harder, for the whole labour. This is why they go into distress. This is why we have so many c/s. Inductions play a massive role in c/s around the world, Obs admit that. Yet we are doing far too many inductions, and if your induction is medically necessary, then I wouldn't worry because the percent of women needing medically necessary inductions is very low.