It isn't as simple as "you either get pain or you don't." Having an epidural can start a cascade of interventions that can do more damage to your body, leaving you in more pain afterwards. Because the woman can't walk or stand, deliveries take longer because you can't use gravity to help you. Because you can't feel "down there" you can't push as easily or control the pushing, so tearing is more likely. There is some evidence that epidurals may increase the need for a c section, leaving one researcher to say, "women may want to make epidurals Plan B rather than Plan A." https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4718011/

My wife did both ... she did an epidural for her first two, and found it really unsatisfactory of an experience. She did the last three natural with hypnobirthing and as an observer ... I could tell the deliveries were much better on her. Still hard, there's no way around it, but she was mostly just zoned out and not really in too much pain until transition, which thankfully only lasts a short while.


As for the colonoscopy, there is evidence that it has less perforation, but thankfully that is a side effect that's not very common. I chose to be knocked out for my colonoscopy because I'm not as tough as my wife, but I get why some may do it that way. If you're numbed ... you wouldn't feel anything. It would just make me anxious to know what's going on.