My first was augmented with syntocinin (waters broke on their own and everything stalled) and I managed with no pain relief. Definitely doable, but like everyone says, depends on each individual labour. I think being augmented and being induced from 'nothing' makes a big difference, at least I know my baby & body were somewhat ready to give birth coz the first part of the labour had been spontaneous.

Labour this time was very different tho.. was almost twiddling my thumbs between contractions! LOL. I couldn't believe how much time there was between contractions so far into the labour! Very different to having the drip - the drip definitely brings them on close together, you don't really get a break.