We talked about it in our birthing class. The lady that taught the class had been a l&d nurse for almost 20 years and she was really informative and knowledgable. I felt like she was pretty unbiased and gave some valuable info in regards to both the pros and cons. That would definately be a good question for the birthing class if you are taking some.
Re: Epidural??
For basic info...Here is a good resource, and it gives both pros/cons:
https://www.americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/epidural.html