Not from my own direct body experience, but as a doula I have been at births where the women loved giving birth with no drugs - I just want to acknowledge that. Most births I've been to, there were drugs, but a few (not many) were truly ecstatic no-drug births.
As with everything where parenting (and anything else of importance) is concerned, you just gotta do what feels right for you.
I had three different close friends try to talk me into going drugless beforehand. One was a NICU nurse, one was a doula, and one was someone who'd had two drug-free births that were good experiences. The first two had had both their kids sans drugs themselves, so they did practice what they preached.
But I knew myself and my extremely low pain threshold. And I knew my husband and his squeamishness. I wanted him to be there only because I feared he'd regret it if he wasn't - all the Dads do it these days, dontcha know. For myself, I could have done it alone no problem. To this day I'm very thankful I had one done. I honestly don't believe I could have pushed properly through that pain. I was dry-heaving (and I'm not someone who gets nauseous easily normally) into a bucket, it was so intense. Took me totally by surprise. Others had told me how this, that and the other might, uh, give way during it all, but that never happened. I just thought I was gonna barf. It worked perfectly - I could feel and move my lower abdomen and legs - it just took the edge off the pain but I could still feel the pressure. That was all I needed. I think I would have been hysterical if it had continued on like it had been before. And that would have been bad for Will, bad for Ed and bad for me.
But I know women who swear by doing it drugless. Power to them. I don't feel like less of a woman for my choice (and I know you're not in any way implying that, Clarissa - I've just known women who've wondered if they should have tried it without), and I don't regret it one bit.
