Tomatoes, if you opt for epidural, then i guess not pain liao lah, like me, if you want epidural, ask for it early if not later, by the time u want, u may already give birth liao...many of my frens second time round took epidural but that time already almost gave birth liao....
as wat poohy said, the VE can be quite painful...has Prof Chen done any for you...every hour or so, they wld come and check how far you have dilated..in my opinion, if you din take the epidural, the VE wld be painful as the gynae wld put his fingers in to examine how much yr cervix has dilated..if u take epid, not pain liao mah..
the anatheticist (dun noe how to spell) will tell u how to curl up ur body when u need to take the epid...listen to her/him..
miko, yup, understand wat you mean..will try to kua pua (see open)...nothing much i can do anyway....