TENS machine hire

[redlolly]

Hello everyone. I would like to use a TENS machine in labour and wondered whether anyone had any advice please - things to look out for, best places to get one from, etc? Any stories v welcome too - whether you thought it was good or a total waste of time!
Thank you!

I've hired one from www.birthease.co.uk. www.birthease.co.uk/birthease_shop/Elle-TENs-Machine-Hire.shtml

It cost £21 for 7 weeks hire and there is free return postage. It comes with brand new batteries. I have tested it to make sure it works, but not had to use it in labour yet, so can't comment on the effectiveness, however the service from birth ease has been very good. This was the cheapest rental I could find and the most convenient in terms of receiving and returning the machine.

Good luck!

I bough ones one in ebay for about 30. I will sell it in after I use it so there is not much loss.

*bought used one

Following this thread for advice as am in a similar quandary myself.

Jetpack that looks good. I need to get my arse in gear and get one ordered too!

Second vote for birthease.co.uk - I went for the cheapest one they had and it was fine - got me to 7 cm by the time I got to the hospital

I bought a mama tens on eBay as I was planning on more than one child so figured it was cheaper, long term, than renting 2 or 3 times. It has, so far, done my 2 labours, my sister's and my best friend's. A fantastic machine.

I hired an Elle tens machine from pregnancytens.co.uk for 7weeks for 21pounds, spare leads and batteries. Will be hiring again, got to 6cm without any other pain relief and I was induced.

I hired one from Lloyds pharmacy online.

TENS machine was provided (free) on the labour ward for me. Check with the unit where you're giving birth and you may save yourself some money.

I hired one from tesco. Didn't work for me (but I was induced so went from being pregnant to being in full labour in less than an hour). The hospital's TENS machine was a lot better than nothing until the epidural arrived.

I hired one first time and found it useful for first stages of labour- bought one for second labour (not sure why i bought rather than hired again but must have seemed like a good idea at the time!) again found it useful for first while- didn't use it when pushing etc- gas and air was my friend by that point!

I used one for dc2 and dc3. I'm never sure if it does anything to take away pain but it was a good distraction, something to focus on when I felt another contraction coming.

I've hired one this time. It's the Elle TENS hire pack (dvd). I found it in Babies r us, reduced from 4.99 to 1.97 or something silly. For that price you get the dvd and unique voucher code with which you call the company and they arrange 5 week hire. So it will cost me £1.97 plus the cost of sending the machine back I guess!

Also used birthease Elle tens. Still not really sure how much it helped but was a good distraction at least - took me to 7cm when I got in the pool. Have it in waiting for number 2 due next week, again from birthease.

Wow thank you all! I will definitely check out birthease and babies r us. Am 37w so need to get on with it! Great to know you have found them useful, even if it was distraction/placebo, getting to 6/7cm sounds pretty amazing! Thanks again :-)

Hi I used a company called BabyTENS www.babytens.net I found them very helpful and one of the cheapest to hire from. I managed to labour up to 9cm with the TENS machine.

HTH