Any lovelies can share their birth experience?

I delivered two months back. My obgyn advised to take epidural as it was my first child. She said it usually painful and then they stitch u out however i had a 24 hrs labor and didnt dialate more than 3cm during this time so took gas but it had no effect. Fyi, they only give epidural once you dialate to 3+ cm. Also the doc mentioned that too much gas might make the baby drowsy so i didnt take much. The labor was intense but with epi the delivery was very smooth. Ask ur doc to advise, but if its first child you can try epi.