Ivana_baby - great name, by the way! Yes, the bodys own painkillers...this is the sort of education that is lacking in hospital birth education classes. It may be mentioned, but not gone into. The hormonal interaction that takes place in a birth where the mother understands all that is happening is truely wonderful. Of course, we have it better these days than they did only a matter of years ago, when woman - although they had 'natural' deliveries in most cases - didn't understand what was going on at all...many woman only found out where the baby was going to come out from while they were in labour! The fear these women experienced meant that most had a natural, but not empowering, birth experience. Now that oxytocin, endorphins, and adrenalin are understood, it's crazy that (probably most) women labour without an understanding of their roll in labour and birth.

Transition is full-on in most cases, and, yes, it's so important for partners to know your wishes, because you really shout out anything during transition, don't you? This is a reason why men need to be just as educated about the birth process as women. It takes two! When I was going through transition with my daughter, I said "I want an epidural"...now, I was in a birth centre, and would have had to be transferred to have an epidural in any case, but I really didn't want an epidural at all, not even when I was saying it. What I wanted, and needed, was to express my tension, to let go of it, to release some anger and exhaustion. My husband said to me "are you sure about that, you'd have to be transferred...the bath is running for you" I immediately said "no, I want a bath". I just needed to let go, you know. I was already entering 2nd stage, really...it was the real over-lapping 1st - 2nd stage part, the full-on transition part, and I didn't want an epidural in the slightest....but I wanted to say I did, and I understood the untruth and hilarity of it, even while I was saying it. Imagine if I was in the labour ward, or if my husband didn't understand the process...they would have all thought I'd lost control, and tried to take over, I think. I was int eh bath within a couple of minutes, and Ava was born about 20 minutes later.

I too thought of contractions as 'waves', and...you know when it's coming on but there isn't yet any pain, you just feel the power...I'd then imagin I was climbing a wave, like body surfing, and when the conraction was at it's peak, I felt that I was on top of the wave, and then felt myself wash down again. I felt it physically, truely. I think it's a great visualisation.