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TENS machine - Yay or Nay?

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  • 03-03-2016 7:00pm
    #1
    MistyCheese
    Registered Users Posts: 4,005 ✭✭✭


    Hi all, I'm looking for opinions about whether or not to rent a TENS unit. I'm just shy of 38 weeks pregnant and the midwife was discussing pain relief options for labour. She asked if I'd considered a TENS machine. I hadn't really because I thought of it as being shocked (silly I know but I'd linked it to static shocks somehow!) She said it's not like that at all, it's more like a massage.

    So I'm thinking about it. I don't have long to decide whether to try it or not. I have found a site where I could rent one for six weeks for €35. Don't want to buy as we're planning for this baby to be our last. Would love to hear others experiences, good and bad. Thank you.


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    #2
    Digs
    Registered Users Posts: 2,102 ✭✭✭Digs


    Definite yay here. I bought one from inhealth.ie think it was a bout €40-€50

    My labour progressed very fast and I went from 0-8cm in less than an hour. The tens machine really helped distract me from the pain of the contractions, they were all of a sudden coming on quick and fast. It's not so much a shock as a sharp pulse where the pads are. As you're prob aware the idea is your brain can only register one pain sensation at a time so the "pulse" of the tens distracts your brain from feeing the contraction as intensely.

    If you go for one make sure to rent/buy one with a boost button so you can control the frequency yourself. The boost button is also another distraction as your kind of waiting to push it as soon as you feel another contraction start up.

    I'll definitely be taking it out for baby number 2 in June, I'm a big fan. That and a bit of gas and air got me through my first labour!


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    #3
    RentDayBlues
    Registered Users Posts: 2,131 ✭✭✭RentDayBlues


    Used on both of mine, first time I hated it, found it irritating.

    Second time it worked amazingly well, I used it in the weeks leading up to labour when I was getting intermitent contractions. I used it until I was 8cm and then switched to gas and air.

    It worked as more of a distraction than pain relief but having to push the button on each contraction made me focus on that rather than the pain, this is where I went wrong the first time


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    #4
    lazygal
    Registered Users Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    Try and get one second hand. I bought one then never needed it so I sold it on for half the price.


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    #5
    Penny Dreadful
    Registered Users Posts: 3,041 ✭✭✭Penny Dreadful


    I bought one on Amazon and used it for the early part of my labour. It helped up to a point. I progressed quite quickly and the intensity of the contractions jumped over what I felt the machine was doing for me. I got a pethadine injection then.
    Again it helped up to a point but then I jumpmed massively in terms of progress and so was taken upstairs to the delivery suite and offered an epidural. I forgot to take the TENS off when I got the pethadine injection and looking back it really annoyed me but I didn't quite figure out what was annoying or irritating me then. It was the prickly sensation of the machine working away
    I said yes to it and was very happy with that.
    Because I was so far along at that stage it wasn't a full epi but it did plenty for me.
    I was 9 hours from the first contraction to my daughter being born which was quick for a first baby I believe. I think I'll use it again for the early stages this time too.


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    #6
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Used it on my first, found it great. Labour progressed relatively quickly for a first baby (7 hours in total). I found it covered the pain in my back, so I only had to concentrate on the pain in my front.

    Rented it first time round from Boots, but apparently they don't do rental anymore, so I've had to buy this time. Annoyed by this, because I don't need a TENS machine for anything else. But if you've found one that can be rented at a decent price then go for it - I'd say yes here too.


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    #7
    MistyCheese
    Registered Users Posts: 4,005 ✭✭✭MistyCheese


    Thanks for the replies, definitely worth considering this!


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    #8
    Roesy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,323 ✭✭✭Roesy


    I used one for the first couple of hours of my last induction. I think it was a distraction for me. If I could borrow one or rent one cheaply I'd use it again.


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    #9
    Lucuma
    Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Lucuma


    Definite Yay from me.
    I had a long labour - 28 hours from the first contraction to when she popped out. I was at home for the first 16 hours of that and used the TENS that whole time, it was excellent.
    You can ramp it up as your contractions get more intense. Like Penny Dreadful I also got the pethidine injection but by then I was in the labour ward.
    I used gas and air as well and between all those (but mainly because of the TENS) I managed without the epidural which was nice coz no catether and you can stand up and are mobile afterwards and go to the loo and have a shower. Also meant I could labour standing up which means gravity helps to get the baby out as well. I didn't need any interventions like vacuum or forceps thankfully.


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