Tell me about transition

[MamaG]

please

[Hoonette]

Yep.

Panic, terror, despair.
Trying to leave (the room, the whole birthing process, one's husband...)
The phrase 'I can't do this'.

Good ole' transition.

[finallydoneit]

oi pink are you still online?

[Pinkchampagne]

I don't remember it with DS1, but I had a very effective epidural. With DS2 however, I remember suddenly feeling very out of control & like I couldn't cope with another second of pain & they couldn't get me pain relief quick enough. I then started crying because I felt nobody was helping me, and I remember the midwife telling me to try to stay with it, to which I yelled "this is as with it as I can be!"
She then asked if I wanted to push, and I said "No I think I am going to poo!"
I guess that was transition, but I didn't realise at the time.

[Nappyzoneneedsanewname]

Its the bit were the hurtyness hurts alot and you dont get much break but know that it also means your about 10cm and the only way to stop it all is to hurt more and push the little fecker out.....

[midnightexpress]

Oh reading this thread makes me very and . When I was in labour with ds2 (ds1 had been born by cs quite early on in labour) I was going for a VBAC and reached a point where I was shouting 'HELP ME!' and was just thinking 'fuck it I'm going to push', which I now know was transition, but the arse of a registrar had decided I wasn't dilated enough and hoiked me off to theatre for another cs. They stuck the spinal in (with the anaesthetist shouting at me to keep still - I nearly smacked him in the gob, but just did a poo instead) then looked and said, Oh, you're fully dilated, can you push.

No of course I bloody can't I can't feel anything from my hips down.

So I had another CS.

Anyway. DS2 is lovely lovely and all is well so will not dwell on it.

[policywonk]

I don't think I 'did' transition on either of my births. Just went from not-pushing to pushing. No puking or shivering or screeching or existential depair at all.

[Tamlin]

It was the bit when I looked over and thought 'That midwife cannot be sitting all the way over there doing her paperwork. Can she? Oh my God, she is. She's doing her paperwork.'

[fatzak]

With DS1 I was too spaced out on pethedine and gas and air to know what was going on full stop! But with DS2 I was def aware of a very spacey period, when I felt really quite calm and really went "into myself" just before it was time to start pushing.

[AuntyJ]

Didnt have transition with DD.
But with DS I remember feeling I was underwater declaring to the room that I didnt want to do this anymore then a violent urge to push 7mins he was handed to me.

[PortAndLemon]

Technically it's the bit when you are doing the last bit of dilation (around 8-10cm). So probably whichever comes last out of all those things.

For me lollipop summed it up best: "you know that there is NO WAY you can go through with the birth".

[MrsBadger]

(between contractions, obv - the mooing was not intelligible)

[MrsBadger]

ah right

that was my most calm and intelligible / least sweary bit

[PinkTulips]

the mooing

[MrsBadger]

I think I missed it

Was it the bit where I decided I needed a poo and scared the mws by going to the loo to do so, depsite reassuring them that I was fine and I just, well, wanted a poo.

or the bit in the pool an hour later where I said 'You know that G&A you mentioned earlier...'?

or the subsequent mooing?

[MamaG]

I wonder if I had a few periods of transition?!

With DD at one point I vomited

Later on I insisted on brushing my teeth before I began to push

With DS I had the shaking/chattering teeth thing and then the vile evil-bitch bit - like lollipop I sadi to MW "I NEED to push", she said "well push then!" me "I can't I ahven't had my epidural yet", MW "no time for that!"

me SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

[ilovemydog]

is that where even an epidural isn't much help, but you don't care because you're 10 cm dilated?

[expatmama]

uncontrollable shaking both times with full on chattering teeth. i knowingly informed the MW i was in transition when it happened with DS2 (i was right though as he was out about 8 minutes later!)

[callmeovercautious]

For me it must have been the point where I suddenly declared I was getting out of the bath. and did so, completely naked and tried to walk accross the hall back to my room - naked

DP threw my dressing gown on me (thank goodness). My head just suddenly realised that I had to get up and about, I don't really remember too much but I do know I suddenly had one clear thought - that it was time to stop messing about and get DD out.

I got into the room, got on the platform bed thing, grabbed a bean bag and declared I was going to start pushing.

She arrived 45 mins later

I did not realise it was transition though. at the time it was just a change in mind set.

[onepieceoflollipop]

Also you kind of "know" that you are on the brink of needing to push the baby out, but it all seems so surreal and unbelievable that you "know" you are probably wrong!

[onepieceoflollipop]

It is when (if in hospital) you start screeching threats at mw and your dp and try to discharge yourself. The problem is that the contractions reach a real peak and you can't actually move from the bed (or wherever you are). In my case I demanded an epidural but was told (obviously) it was far too late. Also you know that there is NO WAY you can go through with the birth.

I also made my dp swear to have a vasectomy the very next day.

[PinkTulips]

it's the bit where if you haven't had painrelief you start to think 'what the fuck am i doing this is insane?!'

it's when the contractions come right on top of each other and last so long you think you're going to be torn from end to end and you feel the babies head right on your bumhole but you don't want to push.

[Ledodgy]

I go a bit weirdy in transition. With dd I felt completley spaced out and like i'd had enough, with ds1 it was too quick to even be aware of transition. This time round I felt like I wanted to sleep, contractions completley stopped and I felt a bit funny and sad so I got myself a square of chocolate, started tweaking my nipples and made labour start again.

[lou031205]

DD1 - Transition was the bit where I suddenly realised that it really hurt, and then because I had been told I wasn't in labour, proceeded to freak out and tell my DH that I couldn't do it, and what if they examined me and found me to be half a centimetre dilated and I was going to end up with a C-section (I was actually 10 cm, and ready to push ).

DD2 - Transition was the bit where I was in a semi-conscious daze from the pethidine, but suddenly like a thunder bolt, my head cleared, I sat upright and declared "I've got to push this baby out!" 5 minutes later she was on my chest.

It is a definite change in the state of play, but I reckon it is something that (unless you have a number of similar labours) you are unaware of being so at the time. It would be handy to realise next time...