what got you through transition (natural birth)?

[lilysmom2011]

Screaming... And biting, lol. I found that biting a facecloth helped me get through the pain of pushing. I accident but my husbands hand near the end though!

[TS8213]

With DS, crying and gripping DH's hand/thigh for dear life. Too far dilated to get an epi by the time we got to the hossy.

With DD2, swearing in my head at the anesthesiologist who was wasting valuable time asking me stupid questions instead of putting in the epi I begged for. Because of that I was already a 10 by the time he was ready. For pushing, it honestly was less painful to push so I had no issues with that.

[teacherpippi]

-Water (could labor in the tub but not deliver)
-Standing/leaning/squatting
-Listening to music (thought I'd want relaxing music with #1, but didn't want anything. #2 had upbeat music and that was much better)
-Low moaning/vocalizing

[cinderella08]

Transition...

* my doula
* my mom
* laboring in the hard-backed rocking chair while doula pushed my knees backwards which provided counterpressure I desperately needed
* eyes closed, low vocalizations

[jamieism]

The idea that all I had to do was stay out of the way and allow it to happen. For some reason that image helped a lot.

Pushing was pretty quick for me in both cases and that idea worked well. Transition I was swearing like a sailor and screaming I can't do it.

Graceful was the last thing I was. Are there really mamas that have graceful births? If there are I am not sure I can be friends with them. They are clearly a different breed.

[DottieHarley]

Originally Posted by lovebabies Oh yeah, I've totally given up on a silent zen-like birth. Haha

Haha, i had a "silent, Zenlike birth" according to DH and the nurses. I literally was so far.. Inside myself... I dunno... I couldn't verbalize anything. You should have HEARD what was going on inside my head though!
Basically I remember thinking two things: one I must remember this to tell our Bradley instructor, and two OMG this is so awful it MUST be transition and that means its TOO LATE for epi and we are almost done!
I had pitocin, though, which caused the godawful contractions which caused me to disassociate from the world. A friend who recently had a medfree birth (after one with an epi and all sorts of interventions) said everyone was concerned bc she would have made sailors blush
For me, pushing was such a relief that I basically didnt feel it. I started joking with the doc at some point.

[AtLeast]

Originally Posted by DottieHarley Haha, i had a "silent, Zenlike birth" according to DH and the nurses. I literally was so far.. Inside myself... I dunno... I couldn't verbalize anything. You should have HEARD what was going on inside my head though!

This is me too. I always say at the end that I did a bad job and my DH and midwife are like "What? You didn't hardly make a noise!" But in my head, it's chaos. But I do whimper at the pushing stage.

I think what helped is to try and be prepared. I watched tons of natural births on youtube and the like. It's interesting to see what other mamas do to get through it and when I was in it, I could sort of think back to what they did to cope. You really just find what works for you in the moment, though. I have been through 4 and I just pretty much know the drill.

[littlehands]

I think I have a high pain threshold or something, because I pretty much could be a poster girl for hypnobirthing. I get hyper-focused and kind of curl up inside myself emotionally. I don't talk much or vocalize much. Just focus on the breathing, etc. There is always one point in my labors where I think, "If I were at the hospital, I would SO take the drugs." And then I remind myself that I'm not, and they're not available and move on.

Just for the record, when they make it seem like hypnobirthing is some magic pill that makes labor orgasmic and all the pain go away, they are lying. (Okay, fine, MAYBE it really does work that way for some women.) Just because someone isn't screaming or freaking out doesn't mean it still doesn't hurt like *$ll, because it does. LOL

[abunchoflemons]

My third baby I went in about 7am and I was 7cm. I had cramps for contractions so it helped. It didn't go in to my back which helped a lot. I think I would have been ok with no back pain with my second but gun shy from my first. I had back labor with oldest/first. Having my ob helped with pushing which wasn't that bad compared to not being able to feel what I was doing as I was over medicated with first so no feeling at all 7 a stranger as ob delivered.

Deny you are in labor as long in possible as a friend suggested.

I didn't realize I was doing the stages and a great near too

[omahonycm]

Not knowing I was in transition, really. I thought I was still in the first stage. I was super scared that it was just going to get worse, so I just kept moving, then I sort of went inside myself and curled up and pushed through, reached down to feel what was going on (midwife not there yet) felt her head and the relief was tremendous. 2 hard pushes and she was out right into my hands. In retrospect, I wish I had known that it was as bad as it was going to get. I was mad at myself for not being stronger and wanting to go to the hospital. But there's nothing like thinking its going to get harder to get you to deal with what you have.