TENS machines: are they good?

[frogalou]

Hello
Would you recommend a tens machine? I know very very little nothing about them.

Do you use it for the first part of labour or also once at the hospital?
Are they helpful? In what way?
Thanks!

I used one for early labour, and found it quite good - at least a distraction from the pain at home. By the time I got to hospital, 12 hours later (!), I really needed gas and air, though. It depends how fast your labour progresses, but if you have a gradual build up, they are good.

I used one for the start of labour and it really helped... useless though when things really got going. I would have one again though.

Have you used one before? I have one for muscle pain so knew how it worked and was confident that it would do something.

Oh - and to answer your question fully, they are helpful because your brain can't make sense of two feelings at once, so the tingling of the machine sort of dulls the pain of contractions. The best way I can describe it is if you cut your leg or something, have you ever dug in your nails to stop the sting of the cut? Sorry, really hard to explain!!

I really found it helpful all thro labour. I hired one from Boots that had a boost mode for contractions. Would thoroughly recommend it. Dh operated it - gave him something to do!

I loved mine. I think the uncomfortableness of it was a welcome distraction from the pain of contractions.

Was the only pain relief I had. Last time I had pethidine, epidural, the works and this time around it was so, so much better.

I loved my TENS both times, a wonderful piece of kit. I put it on at almost the first contraction and only took it off second time round because I didn't want a shock in the pool! The first time the MW told me that I'd reached the point where it is no longer effective, so was SOOO wrong, after I'd taken it off I knew about it

I found it useful for the early stages of labour both times. Many hospitals do not allow you have any kind of pain relief whatsoever until you are 4 cm dilated. Its important to put the tens machine on at the first twinge of labour.

With ds I used it until I got to 6cm dilated. The stupid hospital consultant told me to take it off for no good reason and then the pain really hit.

With dd I had a homebirth and used nothing but tens for pain relief. (Ie. no gas and air and no water) I found that tens worked really well until the second stage.

I saw by mine during my 1st labour, i put it on when the contractions 1st began, and took it off when Baby was born and i got an aftershock!
I didnt have any other pain relief, will definatly use it again this time round! ;-)

I am convinced! I shall go to Boots and hire one! Thank you :)

I hired one from boots&used it for the whole of the labour. I wasn't really aware that it was doing much but I had it turned up full at the end and after I gave birth I (like the poster above), put my back on the bed and got a shock! It must have been doing something!