I too was terrified of another synto induction as my first was long and very painful for the entire duration (as opposed to a natural build up of contractions)and with the drip and monitoring I too felt confined to the bed. I just gave birth to my daughter (induced at 40 +5 as my son was induced at 40 +10 and got stuck and had cord issues as well - thius bub was looking to be the same size wise so they decided induction was neccessary). I had the gels overnight, waters broken at 8am then left to labour on my own to see if nature would take over. It seemed to be working as I had a show an hour after waters were broken and the contractions were strong and regular with me staying upright on the swiss ball throughout contractions and walking around between them. However by 2:30 I was told I still had only 2cm dilation and bubs was still "floating", cevix was long etc. so synto was introduced. I burst into tears thinking I had been doing well on my own, only to be told I hadn't and I was terrified of it heading down the same path. They ended up trying out a new cordless and waterproof monitor so the pads are held on but you are not "wired" to anything. I was able to labour in the shower, swiss ball etc. just as I had been, and my ob even suggested I stand up to push (posterior bub) rather than lay on the bed as I couldn't handle being even slightly leant back due to sciatic pain with each contraction. After just an hour of synto at a low dose (last time I had the synto for several hours and was told I had to have the epi as it was getting turned up to the maximum to budge ds), I started feeling sick, unable to cope etc. Remembering that with DS I thought that was transition, only to be told that it was the synto and still no progress, I decided to go straight for the epi as contractions were no closer together and I was sure the ob would order the dosage to be increased. However much to my surprise when she checked me at 3:30 it WAS transition, no time for an epi and bub was out by 5pm. I credit it to being able to stay upright the whole time as I pretty much was stuck to laying down last time.