TENS machine - anyone used one? and buying off ebay.

Hi everyone,

I have decided to use a TENS machine throughout this labour, and would love any feedback, advice, information that anyone could share with me.

Also I have been looking around at hiring and buying a TENS machine - and was wondering if there was any particular reason why I should choose one machine over another. They have some REALLY cheap ones on ebay, and I am actually considering just purchasing one of these - but am unsure if they may somehow be different to others I have found on the internet and in the chemist??? They are literally a fraction of the price...

I found TENS wonderful in my birth with DS1. That, the shower and hypnobabies on my ipod and I got through drug free. TENS was fabulous. I also used it at the end on the birth with DS2 which helped, but that was an induction, so a different kind of pain. Also the circumstances were different.

My IM supplied it both times so I have no idea about brands.

I never used one in labour (wanted to but had a breech baby so they forced an emergency c/section ... anyway) I use one for back pain and I love it. It is about the only thing that has significantly improved my back pain so I can only imagine how great it would be in labour.

Have you contacted the hospital where you want to birth? When I was going to use one, the allied health department was going to give me one for a $50 deposit (refunded when I returned it) but they also run through with you how it works in labour and teach you how to practice with it. Obviously not all hospitals are the same, but I thought I would mention it in case you hadn't thought about it.

You are getting so close now!!!

Well I have resigned myself to having another drug free birth (never seem to make it to the hospital in time for pain relief) so that is why I am looking at a TENS machine this time - I am figuring that if it doesn't do anything, i am no worse off then I have been for any other birth so far! And if it does do something, then I am much better off! :lol:

I loved the one I used, but the hospital loaned it to me :)
Then I moved to the bath, which was great as well!

I hired one from a physio clinic that my OB recommended.

I have seen people use them with great effect.

I has IOL and found it didn't do anything to help I felt like I was shocking myself as I kept turning it up to get on top of the pain, which it couldnt do as IOL is so different to going into spontaneous labour.

I used an Elle tens that I hired from birthpartner dot com dot au & managed to stay home until 3 hrs before dd was born and had a drug free birth!

I bought a brand called "labourTENs" and found it was fantastic! I put in out as soon as I was in early labour as it helps with endorphins etc, according to the midwife. I found it fantastic - I didn't want to take it off to have a shower! I bought it as it worked out cheaper than hiring one for multiple children (though I'm guessing you may be heading towards the end of your labours...).

So is there any real difference between a labour TENS and a regular TENS???

The machine is the same but the labour TENS has a hand controller that plugs in so you don't need to twiddle with knobs all the time. It shuts off the impulses when the button isn't pushed (you don't need the TENS to be working between contractions) and when you feel the contraction building, you push it and off it goes ;)

I found it to fantastic for helping me manage the pain :)

:yeahthat:

The regular tens and labour tens should be the same thing, they just differ in how easy they are to use.

I used a regular tens for my labours (It was FANTASTIC for managing pain) but I was really familiar with it before hand as I use them in my work.

If you go for a regular tens, make sure you get a chance to familiarise yourself with it before hand so you don't have to 'learn a new skill' while birthing ;) They are really simple to use but the labour versions are even more simple again as Raven explained.

You have probably heard the advice of get them on early to take care of the pain. If you use them too late in the labour they are not as effective. This happened for me with my second labour which was so much faster. By the time we went to use it (by the time I realised I was in labour!) it was too late to be of much help. Early, it can be good to take care of pain and give you something to distract yourself.

I used a TENS when I had Moo and it was fantastic. I got to 8cms at home with it before heading into hospital. My midwife recommended a physio whom I hired it from. I'll be doing the same with this baby as the physio drew on my back where the pads needed to go, DH just kept going over it until the big day :D So there was no guess work for us.

The labourTENs machine (which is actually its brand name) has a handy little controller buzzer type button. You had a low level of "buzzing"/stimulation when you are not contracting, and then you press the button when you start a contraction and it puts on a high level of stimulation and then you press the button again when you stop the contraction and you go back to the low level of stimulation. If that makes sense... Pretty easy to use and comes with a good instruction manual. I just whacked the things on my back, kinda where the picture showed them. For DS2, I put it on myself as DH was still asleep (and I didn't want to wake him up). So it still worked, even without proper placement (though I'm sure proper placement would have been better).

SO, I have gone and bought a TENS machine off ebay. It cost me $25 (much much cheaper then hiring one). It is a regular TENS, EMS machine, rather then a labour TENS macchine. But it has 9 programs in it, plus room for adding three programs myself (if I can figure out how), and although it doesn't have a 'booster' button like the labour specific machines, it does have an intensity button on the unit which can go immediately from lower to higher intensity and back again (so it sounds like the same thing). It has four large electrode pad on it too (with 8 more spare). FX that it is as simple to use as it appears. I will take it into my physio and get them to go through it with me too after I get it and have a play with it myself.

If worst comes to worst, and for some reason it isn't appropriate for me to use in labour (or I don't get the chance/ or don't like it) then it was still nice and cheap (have wasted more money buying lunch at the food court) and DH can use it for his recurrent back pain.
:)

Sounds like a good buy!

Also sounds well worth it if your DH can make use of it. Great idea to get some help from your physio, it is nice to feel you have a confident grasp of how to use it. Make sure you word up your DH properly too. I tried to get DH to attach mine when in labour second time around and he made one of the most fatal mistakes... after attaching the electrodes he turned it on without checking the settings with me and zapped the begeezes out of me. If I could have jumped out of my skin, I would have and it set of a major contraction, starting at a peak rather than working up to one. Not something I recommend or care to repeat!