Cruel Labour??

My sis in law had her first baby Sun night. I'll give you the details - I just want to know whether you think this was cruel or is it normal? Thurs night - she was 8 days overdue - she started having fairly mild contractions, during the night the steadily got worse and stronger, timing was all over the place. Fri at about 3pm she had a show and the contractions evened out to 8 minutes apart, @ 10pm that night, contractions 5 minutes apart she went to the hospital, was only 3cm dilated and sent her home with pain killers, the next morning she woke up and was vomiting, she was taken back to the hospital & given pethadine which did nothing - she was still only 3cm dilated. They told her she probably wouldn't make it to 4cm until Monday when they would induce her. At 8pm that night she got to 4 cm and had an epidural, they broke her waters and she was 5cm so they gave some hormones. 6.5hours later bub was born. 56 hours of labour - is this right to suffer like that or just plain cruel?