TENS unit birth stories

vcabbyw

Anyone have any they care to share?

I have a unit available to me and doing some searching to find how to use it to its full potential. Seems like the consensus is to use it during early labor with two electrodes on my low back near my sacrum. Any advice?

dublin

Mine came with four electrodes/pads and I put two on my lower back and two mid-back. I used the TENS for early labor and during the drive to the birthing center. I thought it was a good distraction and gave me something to focus on during early labor ( it had a 'boost' function that you could turn on during a contraction and then turn off after the contraction was over). I had a rough plan of strategies for the early labor (watch tv, try to sleep, bath with relaxation CD, then eventually bouncing on the exercise ball with the TENS). When I got to the birthing center I had to take off the TENS because I went straight into the pool.

For my 2nd pregnancy I skipped the TENS and just went for a walk- but that labor and delivery was much faster and easier (another advantage of going natural the first time)!

vcabbyw

How did your rough plan of distraction work out for you? It pretty much sounds like my labor plan, that's if everything goes as planned as I'm not doing the Bradley or hypo babies method.

dublin

Yes it worked out really well. I didn't do Bradley or hypno babies (although I was given some hypno CDs which I listened to) either. It's nice to have lots of options to get you through the early labor. I did think things were progressing quite easily and got up to having contractions every 3 mins, but then they started to drift back to every 5-6 mins. The midwife told me to stay at home as long as possible and not to come in until they were every 3 mins consistently for period of time (they really wanted to make sure I didn't come in until I was in active labor)- so it was good for me to break things up into chunks of activities.