My first baby was induced, but 6 days after my due date, owing to pregnancy induced high blood pressure and, by the time of the induction, protein in my urine.
I'd had a very slight show on the morning before the induction (nothing like as much as a full show, with hindsight) so I was obviously heading in the right direction naturally anyway.
I wrote in my birth plan (te he! I didn't bother with a birth plan at all for my second) that I didn't want an epidural and I can't remember its being offered and it certainly wasn't pushed (pardon the pun!) I did feel like I could have asked for one if I'd wanted but I couldn't imagine it ever getting bad enough for me to be willing to succumb. I'm more scared of the epidural (probably totally without foundation) than the pain.
I was given the pessary at bed time, maybe about 9pm or 10pm and told that I might need several doses over a number of days before it had an effect. I was also told that the pessary could cause pain in itself and that this wasn't necessarily labour. So, its being my first, I didn't realise it had started my labour.
I was in pain and couldn't get comfortable all night - couldn't sleep, paced the wards. Got the nurse to fit my TENS machine, which I do think really helped, especially with getting it on so early.
They put me on the graph machine thingy in the morning and found that I was in labour so took me to the delivery suite where my waters were broken. I was in labour all day until around 2pm time, when they decided I wasn't progressing fast enough and put me on the Syntocin drip. Up until that point I'd managed with gas and air and the TENS machine.
The midwife told me it would get more painful and gave me Pethidine, which I hadn't wanted, but she recommended I had it.
Maybe by about 5pm the pain really stepped up and remained constant as the head was coming. (But it didn?t hurt as much as my second baby who was delivered naturally, with a really, really fast second stage and no Pethidine.)
I remember being told to push - and told and told and told to push. I thought I was but, after having felt the incredible urge to push with my second, I had no urge or ability to push correctly. I obviously managed somehow, but with a midwife either side and a leg on each's hip! Baby was delivered just before 6pm without any intervention.
I don't know if my situation is relevant to you as I was past my due date and obviously progressing towards labour to a certain degree. But nobody ever recommended an epidural to me. The pessary certainly started me off, the breaking of my waters increased it and then the Syntocin drip finished things off.
Everyone said an induction is more painful but I honestly don't think it was as painful as the natural birth I had with my second (although he was back to back and I had to endure 3 days of labour pains before they'd take me in so I was pretty sick of the pain. When they did take me in, all they had to do was break my waters and he was delivered within about an hour and a half!) I think, as he came out, I was shouting, "Give me Pethidine now!" but it was obviously 'all over bar the shouting' by then! But it wasn't so bad. If I did have any more I'd deffo only have gas and air and get the TENS on early again.
Hope this is of some help to you. I wouldn?t resign myself to its being the same this time. Even though my labour must have started about midnight and continued for maybe about 14 hours before they put me on the Syntocin drip and a further 4 hours after, the 2nd stage was pretty short, and that?s the killer, isn?t it?! Once I got on the gas and air with the first stage, I was fairly comfortable. I was so tired from being awake all the previous night that I was even falling asleep between the contractions! The second stage would have been even quicker, I think, if I?d got the urge to push (sometimes I wonder if the Pethidine dulled the urge as well as the pain).
I?d say: ASK! ASK, ASK and ASK! The more information you can get from the more people the better. I don?t know anything about epidurals - do they have to be planned or can you wait to see how you get on without before you have one?
Good luck! Hope it all goes well.