I’ve worked as an RN in labor and deliver for over 18 years.

There are stages of labor, and each one is marked by physiological changes.

When a woman is laboring without anesthesia, the time in the labor process that is the most intense is called transition.

Each birth is different, and transition is different for each mom. The one characteristic that seems to be universal is that when transition arrives, it gets real…really fast.

Labor that has previously been breathed through, walked through, hummed through, and managed, now takes on intensity as the body prepares for the next phase – pushing. Many strong laboring women will doubt themselves during transition. Hundreds of times, as I discussed labor plans in advance with a family who had decided they didn’t want any narcotic medications or epidurals, I had to look mama in the eye and say to them – there is going to come a time where you are going to want to quit. You will beg me for medicine. I can get you through this, but you need to understand that this is coming.

I would then talk to them about transition.

Most women would get through transition as they planned, with their partner at their side, supporting them, cheering them on, encouraging them, keeping them focused. It is a rough, intense, incredible time. I love laboring moms because they are so powerful. It’s is so amazing to watch them as they go through the forces that will soon expel the baby they have longed for.

Transition. Necessary. But painful. Intense.

I’m in transition right now. I have the goal in sight. I have the support of my husband, who is rock steady as I occasionally look at him in a panic. Although I am moving toward a goal that had been set before me decades ago, it doesn’t make it any less scary, and painful, as I move closer to the goal. Part of me wants to go back, even as I know there is no going back.

My focus is on getting through this transition. Breathing through the pain, the fear, the anxiety.

The reward will be walking into the will of God, letting go of my fears, trusting God completely. At last!

Every transition has its reward.

Stay tuned.