Hey Mel, I actually didn't find the transfer too bad at all. I ended going to hospital twice - once at 3cm because there was meconium in the waters and we wanted to check that was just because bub was overdue, not because she was stressed before we went ahead at home. That trip I was very with-it and had contractions for 30 sec every 3 minutes. It was not the most fun, but the contractions weren't huge, so it was ok. Plus I was SUPER excited, lol.
The second trip was 12 hours later, I'd been in full labour for most of that time and I was exhausted. I was 5cm and had been for at least 5 hours. I'd been in the pool for maybe 3 hours (felt like 5 minutes, but apparently it was ages!), and I'd gotten out because I was starting to fall deeply asleep between contractions and I was scared I was going to drown

. I was absolutely exhausted by then. So I said I'd get out for a bit and MW checked me and decided it was hospital time. I don't remember a lot of that car trip, but that was partly because I got a bit distressed when MW said to transfer, and the stress slowed my contractions right down. I think I went maybe the first 15 mins or so of the trip without one? So I dozed a lot of that, and continued to doze between the contractions for the last 20 mins of the trip. I do remember it was not much fun having huge contractions in the back seat of the car, but I was in a head space where I knew there was nothing to do but go with it. It wasn't as bad as I'd feared really. I guess it helped that I'd done it twice before 12 hours ago (to hospital and home again) so I knew I could cope with it.
Of course, I'd have prefered to have a lovely home birth, but I'm still glad I got to labour at home. For me that was worth having to transfer later.
Hopefully that helps, and feel free to PM me if you want to know more