I won't have one because it decreases chances of breastfeeding success.
I haven't read all 11 pages of this thread yet so I'm sorry if any of this has previously been posted, but this is not true.
Breastfeeding success depends entirely on the will of the mother to persevere despite any difficulties, and a little bit of luck as well. It doesn't always work, but an epidural is irrelevant to success.
Having an epidural makes absolutely no difference to your milk coming in, to being able to have skin to skin contact with your baby, to your baby wanting to suckle, to anything that has anything to do with breastfeeding.
Also, an epidural does not pass through the placenta to the baby, making it a better choice than drugs like pethidine that can and do pass through, potentially slowing the baby's heartrate down and causing distress if given too close to second stage.
An epidural does not always guarantee pain free - if given too close to the birth it will have absolutely no effect whatsoever. You can also choose to have a patient controlled epidural. Where they give you the drug, but start off quite a low dose, and you have control of upping the dose when you feel you can't cope. There are also walking epidurals available, that allow you to still be partly mobile and to feel the baby descending the birth canal.
Yes, having an epidural can increase the risk of other intervention slightly, and as with ANY drug, there is risk involved. But that risk must be objectively weighed up against the benefits for each person. And the risks should be factual rather than heresay from one person to another.
It can lower your blood pressure and it can increase intervention in some cases. It can cause shivers and vomiting and it can fail to work. But it has no impact on breastfeeding success whatsoever.
As for it slowing labour down, it can if given too early. If given once you are over 5cm, it is highly unlikely to slow down your labour. There is also every chance that at 5cm dilated, regardless of how long it has taken to get to that 5cm (3cm is when active labour begins), you may well dilate so quickly to 10cm that you feel the need to push within minutes, or at least a much much shorter time than it took you to get to 5cm.
So you may have an epidural at 5cm and within an hour you are at 10cm. There is no way of knowing this in advance, even for women like myself who have had multiple births.
Every labour is different and every woman is different. Yes, women have been doing this for thousands of years, but in our current society, women have not been doing pregnancy, labour and motherhood in the same way as our forebears. Therefore, expecting your labour to be like someone who lived 1000years ago is slightly unrealistic. There are many many people who manage a totally drug free birth and good on them for doing so. But there are many many women who don't for whatever reason and that doesn't take away from the euphoria of birth.
You will still feel the 'i did it!" moment. You DID do it, after all. You will still bond with your baby and no type of birth should be able to take that away from you.
My belief is that every labour is different - you need to go in with an open mind and understand that things may happen that are out of your control, you might be begging for pain relief, or you might cruise through easily and wonder what all the fuss is about. But labour DOES hurt. Yes, it's pain with a purpose but for first time mums especially, that severity of pain can come as a shock and fear can impede things. So my advice to all those first time Mums with such definite ideas on how they want their labours to go, is to understand that is hurts like nothing you have ever experienced before. It IS pain with a purpose and if you can remember that, you'll be ok. But no one gets a medal for courage if they refuse drugs, and if you need them it's absolutely perfectly acceptable and ok to ask for them. Your labour will be YOUR labour. No one elses. Other people's experiences can cloud your judgement - go into it expecting the best, but be prepared for unexpected turns. Don't beat yourself up over how you end up giving birth. WHat matters is that baby, not how he or she made their way out of your body.
I tried to stay natural as long as I could, but between the oxytocin I was given at high doses and my 100% back labor, the pain was just too much, and it wasn't getting us anywhere.
It's just in the contex of this thread we were specifically referring to labor. ...my mom adopted and getting through that journey, i would still call that a labor of love! May not have been physical (err, well actually it was pretty stressful at times, so i take that wording back), but adoptions help create moms too. Sorry to offend, i was thinking in the context of birth since that is the current disscussion. I see your point, and no i dont think adopting makes you less of a mom. In fact experiercing adoption im sure would help create mommyhood in a parrell way to physically giving birth, but just in a different way. Wasn't meant to offend. Just contributing to the context of the dialog. But i dont want my point to be missed. My point was that when a women goes through labor, that experience will change her view entirely, whether that be negativly or positivly, it will certainly change perspectives, or reinforce current/past views. All too often the birth experience gets downplayed. As if giving birth means nothing and the only thing that matter is a healthy baby (healthy babies DO matter, but so does the experience a woman is put through). Im sure adoption accomplishes the same, just in a different way. But my point was that we shouldn't downplay the birth experience as it has lasting effects. My comment wasnt to insinuate that if you dont physically give birth you arn't a mother, it was just to reinforce that WHEN a woman gives birth it does change things. Of all of the ladies i know that have given birth, they either leave that experience feeling empowered (no matter which route they took) or they leave it feeling like a failure or traumatized for life. That is what i meant about creating mothers through birth bc it does set the stepping stones of their motherhood. That really does change their perspective. But i was only specifically referring to labor. I wasn't trying to say you arn't a mom if you dont experience that. But i was trying to reiterate the importance of giving birth WHEN you are faced with having to give birth. Society acts like the labor experience doesn't matter, but it's simply not true. That does not mean you are only a mother through labor. Mothers are created in various ways, It simply means that when you have to give birth, the experience has life altering effects and those effects set building blocks in motherhood. Giving birth does create mothers, but it's not the ONLY way to create mothers. But when it is the way a mother becomes a mother, it certainly does create that. I hope im clearing things up with my explaination? Adoptve mommies are excelletn moms too! Im sincerely sorry my comment was misconstrued. 
