Tens machines

[georgiexo]

Are these worth getting!?

I thought so! I had to turn it off at a couple of points and could definitely feel a difference. I did follow the instructions quite carefully and practised daily from whenever you were allowed.

Personally I hated it. The hospital gave me one to use in labour and it made the pain a lot worse. But I know many women who swear by them.

It's worked for me both times in early labor. I preferred to take it off during established labor after after 4cm dilation and once I was given gas and air as it then became annoying.

Yes, it really helped me in the early stages of labour, and for the car journey to the hospital. I would definitely rent again if I ever have a second.

I found it an absolute lifesaver for early labour. Rented one.

Loved it had it on for About 18 hours in early Labour at home

Yep, it helped me in early labour with my first. You might as well get one (you can rent them) and if you don't like it, don't use it.

Thank you everyone! I'll give one a go xx

Didn’t feel like it did much for me, I took it off at one point to have a bath and the bath helped more, and I didn’t then put it back on and it didn’t seem to make a difference. I will still probably put it on again this time though, something to try, and I know they do help loads of people!

I want to try one. I had a look on Facebook marketplace and lots of reasonably priced ones were on sale xx

Jumping on this thread.

I think I'm going to buy a TENS machine but can anyone recommend a good one?

I had one with my second labour, I found it incredibly helpful. It was my only pain relief- not being heroic, my son arrived unexpectedly & very quickly at home. Obviously needs to be specifically for labour and not general pain relief. I was lent one from the community midwives team. Many different settings for different parts of contractions and you can adjust the intensity as you would volume. As PP said it is worth playing around with the settings to get familiar with it. Good luck!

Helped me survive my first 3 days of (early)labour. So glad we bought ours - works out cheaper if you have to use it twice than renting from boots.

Definitely get one for labour, not just a normal one. The boost during contractions is fab.

Utterly pointless - and a total waste of money

Absolutely hated it. Irritated the hell out of me. But seem to work for a lot of people!

Got through the whole labour with just a tens and nothing else, I really didn't need anything else and even right at the end it was managing the pain brilliantly for me.

Helped me with both my labours. Rented one the first time, didn’t get round to it the second time as dd came a couple of weeks early but the midwives found me one on the labour ward. I found they really helped and gave me something else to concentrate on.

My labour was back-to-back so seemed to intensify the pain in my back rather than help it. So didnt work for me sadly!