It's nearly 13 years since I had this done in week 37, and 9 years since I had it done a second time in week 36 so you'll have to excuse me if my memories are a bit hazy or if procedures have changed. But this is what I remember:
Labour 1 (37 weeks). High bp and iugr, but not full-blown pre-ecl. Must have been ready to go anyway, because contractions started almost at one with the gel. Was induced around mid-day, dd was born at 1 o'clock in the morning. Used a TENS machine for early labour, which helped a lot, gas and air towards the end. Was monitored regularly but still encouraged to move about. Had bath after contractions had started, which eased the pain. Don't remember the pain as unbearable. Felt a little sick with the gas, so needed to breathe fresh air in between. Was a bit unlucky in that dd's head got stuck when pushing, so ended up tearing and needing an episiotomy ouch! So yes, I was sore afterwards, but actual labour not too unbearable. Dd was small but slightly bigger than anticipated weight and did not need SCBU.
Labour 2 (36 weeks). Was already in hospital with pre-eclampsia and bad reaction to bp drugs also iugr known. Decision to induce at this stage a bit spur of the moment, because the hospital suddenly found they had a spare bed. Induced just after lunch, contractions kicked in very suddenly and very strong, after 2 hours ds's heartbeat went down and they had to whisk him out by emergency caesarian. This I found relatively untraumatic: I was awake, the pain went away, the operating team were very pleasant and they gave me ds to hold straightaway. He stayed in an incubator cot next to my bed all night, but did not need to go down to the neo-natal ward. My memories of the first night are a bit hazy as my bp was doing strange things and I was pretty well out of it. But no lasting damage: I was sitting up in a chair holding ds by lunchtime the next day. On the whole, found caesarian scar easier to deal with than the vaginal scars.