Ten out of TENS from me! (TENS Pain Relief Unit)

Member Name: Claribella

Product:	TENS Pain Relief Unit
Date:	14/05/09 (1014 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Effective pain relief

Disadvantages: Doesnt work for everyone.

TENS machines come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes but they all do the same thing and that is to use electrical pulses to trick your mind into believing that the pain you are experiencing isn't as bad as it really is. They are great for labour and I have also heard of them being used for back pain too.

You can buy them but I hired mine because I knew the likelihood of me using after my pregnancies was probably slim. I know that Mothercare hire them but I got one from my local Pharmacy for around £15. I had to pick it up when I was 38 weeks and return it when I had my baby. I liked the idea of returning it when I wanted because I knew for a start that I would probably be late, and after the birth the last thing you are worrying about is returning the thing when you have dirty nappies to change and a hungry mouth to feed.

The one I had, had a hand held monitor similar to the one above but without the screen. Coming off of the monitor was two leads and on the end of these leads were four patches; a bit like a nicorette patch. The idea with the machine was to stick two of the patches at the bottom of my back and the other two went just below my bra. On the monitor there was a dial whereby I could control the intensity of the electrical pulses so when my contractions got worse I could turn the monitor up if I needed to. I also had a little button in my hand so that when I could feel a contraction starting I could switch on the machine by clicking the button then switch it off easily when the contraction went.

I used this on both of my pregnancies. My first pregnancy was an induction so the pain was immense but this little contraption really helped and when they took it off to give me an epidural I realised that it was working a lot more than I thought at first. The pulses took my mind off of the pain of the contraction and I didn't think they were as painful as they actually were.

I used the TENS machine for the last hour of my second pregnancy and it helped me to get through it without having any other pain relief.

I have heard that they don't work for everyone but surely it's worth a try if you want a natural birth.

The only down side to this product is that you can't wear them in the bath but that didn't bother me as I didn't want one during both of my labours.

Over all I would definately recommend that you try this for labour especially if you want to try and have a natural birth. They are easy to use but very effective and worth the money that you pay to hire one out.

Summary: Because of this I was able to have the natural birth that I wanted second time around.