Princess Abbey - now you’ve done it! Asking women to recount labor stories? Is there anything we like to talk about more? Not for me there isn’t.
My first labor, while not horrific, is probably not that inspiring - the contractions were difficult and I found myself wanting (but never got) the epidural. I didn’t have any relief with the lamaze breathing, so in my second pregnancy, I read a book about the Bradley method and practiced those methods of relaxing through the contractions. Most of my second labor was wonderful - not pleasant, but much easier to handle I walked around the whole time, ate food, even took communion, and I only pushed for 10 minutes. I also was more assertive with what I wanted, and I think that helped a lot. I did go through a very intense and unpleasant 10 minutes of transition before I pushed, but the upside is that I learned from it that artificially breaking my water before I’m dilated is not a good idea for me. I took that knowledge into my 3rd labor (which, by the way was only 3 wks ago).
Now my third was in many ways, the easiest - largely because I felt the most empowered and in control. I even had a nurse who kept calling me a control freak (nice, huh?) and I felt confident enough to say, “Yes you’re right - so anyway, do this do that” I made sure to get what I wanted, and that was great. Even though I had had two un-medicated births, I felt strongly that I did not want to play the martyr, so when it started to seem like the contractions might get unbearable, I wasted no time in asking for the epidural right away. Once the epidural was in, I was almost immediately ready to push. I don’t know if that was BECAUSE the epidiral relaxed me and allowed things to progress, or if it would’ve happened that way anyway ( in which case, I wouldn’t have needed it after all). But I don’t regret it because, I was not afraid, and I was in control (well, somewhat).
A really neat thing about my third labor was that I was able to include prayer in my contractions. Some of it was “Lord have mercy.” Other prayers were for some people who are suffering terribly right now,and I wanted to offer something to the Lord for them. I did have to push for a long time with this one, so I was quite tired by the time I was pushing the baby’s head out (of course, the hardest part), At that last moment, my thoughts were brought to the Blessed Mother. And even though I knew that her labor and delivery may not have been painful, I was given a great source of strength by repeating “Mary did it too.” She must have interceded to make me toughen up and get the job done, just when it seemed I couldn’t do any more. I really felt quite blessed by that, along with the obvious joy of seeing my daughter face to face.
I am just the type of person to think, no, this isn’t the real thing. I’ll wait until things get exciting! But my husband would probably drag me out of the house and to the hospital. He’s afraid of home (and hallway) births. 
your midwives/doctors and nurses know what to do and will help you. Do your reading and be knowledge and have a plan in mind, the rest is up to God.