I get the comment sometimes because I often have people tell me that as soon as they hit the hospital, they're going to ask for the epidural. When I explain that it's not always the case and sometimes it's either too late or it doesn't work, it leads to my births and I get the whole "I couldn't do that" and brave comments.

It bugs me sometimes simply because I did what I had to do. My choice was either have these babies with no real pain relief, or get knocked out and have a c/s and the alternative of not being awake to see my babies enter the world was just a horrifying thought. Getting the comments telling me that I'm brave or superwoman or whatever just feel silly. If they were in the same boat, they would have the same birth story.

Nobody told me prior to the birth of DD1 that I wouldn't be able to have an epidural or that other pain relief wouldn't really help. It's information that would have been a huge help because I could have researched different ways to help me manage instead of being so naive and believing that I could simply have the epi.

With any luck, Kate's labour and birth (if details are shared) will have women looking at different alternatives if plan a doesn't turn out.