Pain relief for labour? (TENS Pain Relief Unit)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	TENS Pain Relief Unit
Date:	17/09/02 (2231 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: some pain relief

Disadvantages: lots of trouble to use.

Tens machines are offered as a natural pain relief for a range of ills - I know of several people who use them for muscular pain. They are available for relief during labour, which is the capacity in which I encountered them.

You can hire Tens machines from your hospital/midwife centre or from Boots. You can also buy them. If you are in hospital, you can use them for free.

Tens machines work by inflicting a small electronic pulse on the area of your body in question -for labour they are applied to the back. Dop not imagine for one moment that with a big bump on the front and cotnractions you are going to be able to get the sticky tabs they use anywhere useful - you will need a birthing partner to help you sort it out. The theory is that the pulse stimulates the production of endorphins, a pain killer your body can produce, and thus eases suffering during labor.

Some sugegstions.

1) get your tens machine early because they take a bit of getting used to - do not, as I did, wait until you are in about as much pain as you think you can cope with. Tens is apparently good for early labour, but later on probably won't be enough. It takes practise to get the right setting if you get it wrong, or the wires come out, you can get something akin to an electric shock in terms of how it feels - not nice at all.

2)get someone to help you put it on and to put it back on when it falls off.

3)Be aware that you can't use it in a bath.

4) Be aware that it is unspeakably tricky going to the loo with one of these on, because you have to hold all the wires and stuff out of the way. You might want to take someone to the loo with you to help you out.

5)Be aware that if you want to change what you are wearing, you will have to take the thing off and start again, which can be an issue.

Was I impressed? No. I should have started sooner admittedly, but I found that the massage provided by my other half was
actually a lot more effective at producing bursts of endorphins during contractions. I found the device awkward to use, I got more 'shocks' than ever I did pain relief.

I think you might as well try this in early labour - it might work and if nothing else it does give you something else to think about, in which capacity it is moderatly useful. Don't expect miracles and, I have to say, get the gas and air instead.

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