Yesterday, the consultant asked me if I had any plans with regard to medication during childbirth. My thoughts on the whole thing are that I won't really know until I'm doing it, and pretty birth plans and good intentions are all guessing in the dark. We've all heard the stories about women who swore they wanted a 100% natural birth and started screaming for drugs once the pain got bad. (I'm sure there are women who changed their minds the other way too--and there would probably be more if some women weren't so worried that they had the epidural straight away.)
My answer was that I planned to try doing it naturally, but would have an epidural if I felt it was necessary. This was actually a good answer in this case, because apparently, if you're considering an epidural they like to have the consultant anaesthetist have a look at you to make sure there won't be any problems.
I'm not wedded to the idea either way. It would be nice if I didn't need it, but I'm not Superwoman either and I don't want to be one of those women who put themselves through 20 hours of hell and then give in. But I like to have all my ducks in a row and it's nice to know I can have one if I need/want to. So I'm glad I was an honest wimp. :)