Hi there - I had both. I had laboured for about 24 hours before getting the epidural (what a relief!) and then it turned out that I had to have an emergency CS as in the 24 hours of hard labour I only dilated 1cm and with severe PE and meconium in my waters it was time to get her out. So they then put in a spinal for the CS.

I only found the epidural a bit painful as I was having full on contractions whilst he was trying to get it in. It would not have been bad if that wasn't happening (I don't think).

The spinal wore off really quickly and I was out of recovery within an hour.

As for pain afterwards it was manageable. Due to my other problems I was still flat on my back in the delivery suit for another 24 hours - this was because of my PE and the magnesium they were giving me. After the epi wore off my pain was manageable on the tablets they were giving me. I even got them to cut out one lot of them within 48 hours as all they were doing was making me feel sleepy.

I'm not sure if my situation is of any help at all. Honestly I didn't even feel the needle going in and once that epi started the relief was instant. I also recovered really quickly from the spinal. So all in all I had a positive experience in a rather yucky situation.

Good luck - I am sure you will be fine and up and about with your bubs nice and quickly.

Janie xxx