I've only had 3 natural births - although the first they came in every few hours and muttered "ifthisdoesn'thappenfasterwe'llhavetoinduceyou " and the second I was supposed to get induced the day I had her, so I've had close calls Had gas for pain relief, so could move around and whatnot, which helps apparently.

I didn't find any of them *that* bad. Bloody painful yes, but not impossible to deal with. And it just magically stops hurting the instant you get given the baby at the end, which is fantastic. Endorphins rock! If you are allowed to move you end up finding a position or rocking or pointing a shower at you or being rubbed or just ANYTHING that hurts less, and being able to choose your own position is nice. I guess that is the 'empowering' bit the natural birth activists keep harping on about. I may have been young and utterly uneducated at my first birth but I got the birthing ball, bath, beanbag etc despite not knowing they were even options and walked out of there with the baby afterwards so it can't have been *that* bad.

Goes to show education helps but hospital policy helps more