Epidurals resulted in good pain control yet leads to more depression and feelings of powerlessness. The husbands gained more control with the epidural - because he didn't have to watch her in pain anymore. This leads to greater loss for the woman. Women feel robbed of their identity. Many women described the pain of labour in terms of genital mutilation - being torn, cut, being infected, etc.
Emotional blackmail is used on women in labour to produce compliance.
This is done to legitimize the medicalization of birth. In birth, as in rape, women feel a sense of relief in the fact that they've merely survived. They try to accept the birth as no different from what everyone else gets, and try to return to normality. As with rape, there is often a time lag before a woman can express her emotions. You cannot get a true sense of her emotions around this time.