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I've done it twice, and it wasn't too bad. If you're in the hospital, you may be somewhat limited, meaning IV's and monitors and things like that, that make it harder for you to walk around and change positions much. But I managed it. Never having gone the other route (epidural, etc.) I can't compare, but I can say that for me, going natural was great. Sure, it hurts, but I felt like it was best for both me and my girls. My advice would be to study up well beforehand, so you know what to expect. Fear and uncertainty will make you tense up, which makes everything worse. Take a childbirth cla__s, read books, and learn everything you can. Practice relaxing completely, because that's key. Some people say to find your "happy place," or visualize different things, like a flower opening, or whatever. Personally, I'm a lot more boring than that. What works great for me is just slowly repeating in my mind over and over, "In-two-three, out-two-three," which was the slow deep breathing that we practiced in the childbirth cla__s. I didn't do any fancy LaMaze stuff. It was too confusing to remember. (I would have had to practice it a lot beforehand.) Just deep, controlled breathing, and relaxing as completely as possible; tuning out everything but the numbers in my head. When I thought I couldn't possibly handle it if it got any worse, it was time to push. Also, it's good to have someone with you that isn't going to encourage you to take the drugs. But keep an open mind. I went into it thinking that if I possibly could, I would go drug free; but if it was too much for me, getting an epidural wouldn't make me a bad mom. Since hospitals can be restricting and not as comfortable, I like to stay home as long as I feel safe in doing so. (I don't want to have the baby in the car, or anything like that.) When the contractions are really starting to get intense, I go to the hospital. Both times I've been dilated to 4 or 4.5 by the time I was admitted. Each time, my baby was born within four or five hours of arriving at the hospital. Since early labor is often the longest (and easiest) part, it doesn't make sense to me to hang out in the hospital all that time. By the time I reached the hospital, moving around and changing positions a lot was the last thing I wanted to do. I sat up for a while, and then laid on my side for a while, and I had to do the cla__sic back laying/feet in stirrups thing to deliver. (UGH!) Sorry to be so long. I hope that helped!