Tens Machines - are they worth it?

[RedKennedy]

Just looking into hiring one, planning on a pretty natural birth (g&a and hot water) as they dont do epidurals.. is a Tens machine a waste of money or an invaluable device?
thanks x

Would absolutely recommend one.

With ds1 I didn't think it was doing much, until the batteries ran out. Dh couldn't replace them quick enough Also liked the feeling of having some kind of control.

If you're planning one having more than one, I would consider buying one (works out cheaper, and I wish I'd bought my own) Left it very late hiring one for ds2 - it arrived 3 hours after the birth

Ist birth - didn't put it on soon enough, ripped it off because it was annoying.

2nd birth - put it on at first slight pain and it was fab, had home birth with no other pain relief.

Also 2nd time I had put brand new batteries in to start with - this prob helped!

Personally it did bugger all in actually relieving any pain, but what it did do was irritate me so much that it distracted me and gave me something to think about while contracting. Also bloddy funny watching DP fly across the room in shock as he tried to take it off me when I wanted to get in the bath. It was on full pelt, I couldn't feel a thing and it made him jump out of his skin and he flew back - pmsl!
So from a distraction pov yes they are worth it but don't expect it to actually do any pain relieving! I sepent the whole time teying to work out if it was on and working, which it was!

Not sure it did much for me, but definitely worth a go. Certainly takes your mind off things a bit, particularly when OH tries to electrocute you with it, as mine did.

i really rated it at the time....

the difference between a contraction with and without it e.g. when id got out of the bath and hadnt put it back on yet and a sneaky contraction came and bit me on the bum....was significant.

however the difference is not betwwen painful and pain free!

it def made the earlier contractions more bearable for me.

I hired one, I would recommend hiring it rather than buying it, as the TENS machine is developed and updated every year or so, by hiring it, you get to use an up to date version.

I used it, thought it helped, was my first baby and I was 6cm dilated by time I got to hospital with just using it.

You need to use it within the first hour or so of labour, as it takes a while to get your natural pain relief to work.