How to Get Through the Transition Stage of Labor

Giving birth can be terrifying! After all, we are constantly told how painful labor can be. Well, I had a lot of fears going into my natural unmedicated births. The biggest fear I had was getting through the transition stage of labor.

I was just terrified of this stage of labor because I’m a bit a wimp when it comes to pain and this stage just happens to be the most painful stage. I’m the girl that cries when I stub my toe and if I have the slightest headache, I reach for the ibuprofen.

I have to admit, I honestly wasn’t all that confident going into my unmedicated labor but I did it and it wasn’t all that bad. Here is what I did to get me through the toughest stage of labor:

***This post may contain affiliate links to products I use and love.  Before implementing any health advice, please check with your doctor first as I am not a medical professional.  Read my full policy for more information.

Pre-Labor Preparations

Before you go into labor, there are a couple of things you need to do so that you can get through the transitional phase. These preparations are both mental and physical:

Be Prepared

The biggest shock I encountered when telling others that I was giving birth naturally was that they too wanted to have a natural birth. I heard it time and time again, “oh I tried to have a natural birth and I just couldn’t do it, so I had an epidural in the end.”

I simply asked them what they did to prepare and their answers were, “oh, I read a few books”, “I bought a birthing ball, that should do it!”, and more commonly, “oh, I can handle pain, I’ll just wing it!”.

The one thing they all had in common was that they were completely unprepared. It would be like saying that you’re planning on running a marathon next week and you’re running a few times here and there. That should do it! Nope!! Sorry! It takes a lot more preparation than that.

You have to train both your mind and body for this moment so that you can cope with labor. There is more to it than buying a birthing ball and reading a few books here and there. Find out how I prepared for my natural birth here!

Be Determined

For you to get through the challenges of a natural birth, you need to be in the right mindset from the start. You need to want this if you want to be successful. When you make a decision to have a natural birth, you need to “go all-in”.

If you say “well, I’ll just get the epidural when I can’t handle it”, you’ll probably ask for an epidural when it gets too much.

The way I looked at it, was that an epidural wasn’t an option. I told my mind that the hospital just didn’t do epidurals and I couldn’t have one. My birth plan was clear and I asked my birthing team to not suggest an epidural at any point (unless my life was in danger and needed one of course).

As the epidural was never suggested and I thought it wasn’t available to me, I was never tempted to ask for one. I was determined to make this work.

Know Your Reason Why..

So.. why have you decided to have a natural birth?

There are many reasons women choose to have a natural birth, but what is YOUR reason?

This will really help you succeed with your natural birth.

The reason I wanted to have a natural birth was because I had an epidural with my first child and it was pretty rough. I tore really bad and I was so exhausted from the process, I could barely take care of my newborn. I knew I wanted to do things differently.

Any time I lost confidence, I kept thinking about why I was doing this. I wanted a better birth experience and I wanted to be able to take care of my newborn without feeling groggy!

I couldn’t believe the results in the end…it actually worked!! I didn’t tear at all, I was elated (not groggy or tired), my baby latched right away, and I recovered super fast!! I even walked to my recovery room 20 minutes after my baby was born and felt great!! It was so worth the pain and discomfort!

Knowing my reason why and reminding myself of this always helped me through my doubts and fears about labor.

Keeping Calm

Yes, this is definitely easier said than done. This is why it’s important to be prepared. HypnoBirthing really helped me stay calm and at every stage of the birthing process. If you’re tense, the pain becomes a lot more intense, your labor will be slower, and the pain will be difficult to bear.

Imagine tensing your leg when you get a Charlie Horse? It’ll make it worse! So, what do you do instead? You shake it out and “relax” your leg. Same thing with your uterus. Keeping your body calm and relaxed will make the transition stage more bearable!

What I Did on the Big Day to Get Me Through the Transition Stage

When you get to the transitional stage of labor (8cm dilated), your behavior starts to change. You can no longer talk through your contractions (or even your breaks) and you start to get irritable. This stage is usually the quickest but it is also the hardest part of your labor.

Most women at this stage want to give up as the feelings can get a little overwhelming. This is when you know that your baby is so close to being born.

For both my natural births, I got the shakes. I couldn’t stop or control them. I also felt like everything was a blur! It was very strange!

I had a lot of plans during this stage (like listening to some birthing affirmations or sniff some essential oils) but honestly, I didn’t think of anything like that. My mind went into super focus mode and I just did what I felt like doing at the time.

Here is what I ended up doing during the transition stage:

Humming Through Contractions

Humming or low groans are the best ways to get you through a contraction. Low groans and humming helps you to stay relaxed and doesn’t cause tension! Perfect!

High pitched screams are the worst thing you can do as it causes you to tense up, making things worse! It also freaks everyone out and your nurse may suggest an epidural. Avoid the high-pitched screams and focus on relaxing your body so you can easily give birth.

Hum out the pain mama! When I was humming, it felt so much better..I didn’t really hum to any particular song, I just randomly hummed and it helped me through the toughest contractions.

Repeating Birthing Affirmations

Birthing affirmations really helped me through this stage as well. I kept saying “I can do this” over and over. I also repeated the phrase “I can do anything for 1 minute”.

This boosted my confidence so much! It mentally helped me through my contractions which helped a lot.

Check out my ultimate list of birthing affirmations here!

Staying in a Comfortable Position

At this point in labor, you’re not going to want to move around a lot. Choose a position that you feel comfortable in for this part. For me, just laying sideways on my bed, worked best at this point!

Yep!! I thought walking around would help. It does in the first parts of labor and walking or changing positions can help your labor progress, but when you’re in transition….rest. Take it easy as you will need to be more focused. It will be intense.

Find a position that works for you! I remember my labor nurse asking me to lay on my side and my baby will come. I didn’t believe her as I thought “gravity” will help! Nope! As soon as I laid on my side, I just grabbed onto the bed and held on for my life! My baby was finally coming! Yay!

Staying comfortable sometimes means being comfortable in what you’re wearing. A birthing nightgown can help you to feel more comfortable no matter what position is working for you.

Light Touch Massage

While I was laying on my side, my husband would lightly scratch my back up and down. It helped so much! It kept me feeling calm and relaxed even when I was having a tough contraction. This felt really really good.

Personally, I loved my husband’s touch. That was it though! When the nurses touched me to get the baby’s heartbeat, I hated it!

So that was all I did to get me through the toughest part of labor. Here is how I got through the other stages of labor.

Good luck mama! I know you can do it!