Birthing balls and tens machines - Recommended?

[cuffyj1]

Do people recommend the use of these when in labour?

Yes to both!!!

Tens machine was great for me.

Will deffo have one this time round.

Tens machine worked well for me - so well in fact that I ended up having an unplanned home birth - the pain just wasn't commensurate with how far on I was!

Yes to both. Something to remember if you want to use both Tens and water, and that is that if you have been using the Tens frequently for at least 40mins, then the effect lasts for about another 30m without using it. This means that you can take it off and get in the bath, knowing that you can get out again and use the Tens afterwards without feelign rushed. This is what I did - wonderful.

I hired mine, but I have an ordinary Tens which I use for backache, so I wuld have thought that owning a labour Tens would be useful as you could use it at other times too,

The ball has stayed inflated for about 7 years, since before I was pg (I also got it for back problems), as the children love playing with it - so real value-for-money there!

Never used a tens machine in any of my 5 births - don't know why but I've never been attraced by them. Straight in for the powerful stuff, I say!

Birthing balls - used one last time and it was fabulous. I really wish I had known about these before with my others, they are great.

yes to both, if labour had lasted less than the 40hrs that it did, it would probably have been all that i needed
would like to prove this point second time around whenever that might be

Birthing balls I cannot recommend enough - fabulous, totally fabulous. Didn't use for ds1 (induced, epidural, confined to bed) or ds2 (no time!) but with ds3 it was offered, I was sceptical but boy was it good! I sat on it and rocked throughout the whole labour using just a bit of gas and air at the end at the very top of the contraction. Just moved off it to actually give birth at the end. It was a textbook birth, dead easy!

Birthing ball was fab, could hardly get off until the baby was almost put!!

birthing ball was fab with dd, and with ds to a lesser degree. sure they really helped me have speedy labours though.

never bothered with Tens.

Used a birthing ball at home when heavily pregnant -found sitting on it the nearest to comfortable I could get (had SPD). Intended to use it in labour but we forgot to take it with us!

Used TENS with both DD and DS. Not quite sure how much pain relief it gives but found it a much-needed distraction to take my mind off the pain. Word of advice -don't put DP/DH in charge of the buttons, mine was switching it off when it should be on and vice-versa (shouting at him took my mind off things though I suppose )