Absolutely agree - horses for courses. One person's perfect birth could be another person's bad experience. Mine was perfect for me - epidural after three days of labour with a posterior baby (and my own pain management techniques) followed by forceps. I could not have been prouder of myself.

What peeves me a little is that some people will carry on about labour being mind over matter, somehow implying that women who take pain relief just weren't mentally strong enough to cope with the pain. Don't get me wrong, I think you need to be prepared and it's great to have some pain management techniques up your sleeve but often it's the length of the labour that determines your attitude to drugs not just your pain tolerance levels.

I'm a huge fan of Juju Sundin's book - you can't be disappointed with your birth if you know that you've tried your best and she gives you lots of techniques to try. Worked for me - I know I tried my best and like I said in my first sentence, I could not be prouder.