PS On reading (and empathising with) Chilipepper's post below, I want to clarify that my beef is not with people who choose painkiller-free childbirth for themselves, I don't take pills for headaches or most period pain, it's with ANY attitude that says severe pain is part of a natural process and therefore, should be tolerated. "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." No. Any severe and prolonged pain can and usually DOES cause trauma that lasts, that is my gripe, not choices made by people who are willing to put up with pain for whatever benefits they (me, occasionally) feel they gain by refusing medication. But it should be the patient's choice - and re timing of epidurals, my mate got repeatedly turned away from hospital until the baby was coming out of her cervix, so late epidurals could be down to misdiagnosis as much as anything? And as Tom mentioned, and my repeated experience shows, painkillers don't just offer pallaitive care for sciatica, they actually are part of the treatment by relieving inflammation, and more importantly perhaps by allowing the patient to move a bit more, and so undo the muscular tension trapping the nerve. /rant!