Ouch. How long does transition last?

I'd always imagined first stage would be like the pain I get, with transition being completely-beyond-the-realm-of-human-experience pain (irony). The thought of transition bloody scares me (no pun intended), BUT if that's as bad as it gets... Annoyingly I won't know till I get there, I suppose! Problem is I can't imagine it getting any ahrder than it is already and frankly, there ain't a watermelon-sized child trying to force its way out of the relevant parts. :eek:

Ladies, you've got me thinking: maybe I should visualise each period now as being training for labour and try to work through it? (a bit hard if it happens in the public domain, though!!) Perhaps a good opportunity to see if I can do this, bearing in mind the post about natural labour Kelly posted the other day. I suppose I've always thought of period pain as 'bad' pain, not 'good' pain, but maybe it is just my own body's way of ending a cycle and I should embrace this?? Hmmm.

Will look out for that herb Marydean - can you take it if suspecting pregnancy though? Not a prob at the moment but important to know for later. Have mentioned the prob to relevant parties and guess I will need to I suppose I know what level of pain I can survive - it's also a matter of how long the pain is there for. In waves it's easier becuase you can focus on the relief at the end (like someone else pointed out in another thread, can't remember who, but it was an excellent point). But after several hours of it I reckon I'd be pretty darn peeved.