Tens machine and birth pool

[ceestar]

I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on tens machines and birth pools they could give me...

I’m 36 weeks and very unorganised! I’ve opted for a home birth half way through my pregnancy and I’ve been looking online but feel a bit overwhelmed.... I’m also on a fairly tight budget which isn’t ideal. Does anybody have any reccomendations as to where I can get a birthing pool at a decent price and where is best to rent a tens machine from?

It depends whereabouts you are. We're looking at home birth kit (29 weeks now) and I want to leave it as late as possible as we hired a TENS last time then became high risk hospital birth and it got sent back unused. I was to try and avoid shelling out for kit we don't use this time.

The home birth kit we've looked at doesn't include delivery - you have to collect and return so I'd search for "water birth kit ceestartown" and see what comes up. You want to collect it in the next week I'm guessing - they generally make the kit available 3 weeks before your due date.

I bought a TENS second hand off ebay, new pads, then sold on ebay afterwards. Worked out a lot cheaper than renting.

I bought a TENS off of EBay like PP as it was cheaper than hiring one and I bought new electrode pads from Amazon.

My pool is downstairs and they require a £100 deposit as well as the payment, the deposit is returned when they get the pool back. I also got a mat to go under it and a cover to keep the heat in so it can be filled before I want to get in. My last pool (for DC1) I ordered from birthworks but they don't appear to be in business anymore, this one is from barefoot birth pools I think. I read reviews of the one that others recommend (mermaid something) and they weren't that good so didn't go with them.

May I also suggest that you purchase some of those stick on heat patches for bad backs? You can use those with the TENS before you get in the pool and they aren't a faff like a hot water bottle.

Thanks so much everyone! I’m in London, sorry forgot to mention!

I’ll check out eBay for the tens machines too. Hoping to get it all sorted today!

Also which brand tens machine did you get or does it not matter so much? There are lots on eBay so I’ve no idea what to go for!

I have the Elle TENS, I used it last time as one of my NCT friends had that one and it worked fine so I just bought one this time. I guess most maternity TENS are pretty much the same though, just make sure it's definitely a maternity one. The electrode pads for maternity ones are also larger than normal and I think are 10x5cm so make sure that you don't get tiny ones.

Thank you! After a bit of research a lot of people are saying the Elle one or the Boots one. There are a lot of Elle ones on eBay so I’ll go for that!

If you can trick your OH into rubbing your back while you have the TENS on that's quite amusing

Also keep a bucket near the pool. Have remembered that I was sick (on the floor, not in the pool) and DH wasn't fast enough with a bucket as there wasn't one anywhere near. Not everyone is sick, just might be useful.