I'm a mother of 5 and gave birth to my no. 5 on Feb.
I had epi for all 5 but unfortunately the recent one the epi does not work on me at all. No idea what went wrong but thankfully I only 'suffered' the pain for 3 hrs only. Amazingly, I can tahan the pain although it was very intense.
With my other 4, it was amazing! After epi, I can sleep w/o feeling any pain eventhough I was already in an active labour right until I gave birth I can't feel any pain. The epi itself is not painful. It's just like a jab when you take injections and then you'll feel numb waist down. Side effect - you'll feel extreme cold. I had 3 blankets on me everytime. So far I have no side effects like backache and all like how others had.