TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Signals””or electrical stimulation sent through the skin. The basic idea of TENS has been around for a long time – in fact there’s even references to it in literature from Ancient Rome. It’s a form of pain relief that has no side effects, is drugfree and won’t cause drowsiness.

Portable, hand-held TENS machines are very useful for mobile, non-invasive pain relief. When applied to your skin using electrode pads,it has a sort of buzzing sensation, like fingers drummed on your body. Sweet Beats uses a specially designed obsetric TENS unit that is programmed to help you relax during the rest time between contractions, and has a ‘BOOST’ button that you press at the start and end of a contraction to increase the intensity when needed.

The TENS pain relief is easily applied to the acute pain of labour. It will work as pain relief in three ways:

• Endorphin release – the TENS, whilst not painful, stimulates your body’s natural painkillers – endorphins. These endorphins will help you relax and will help your body to cope with pain.
• Blocks pain signals –our nerve pathways are like train tracks – they can only transmit one signal at a time. The stimulation of the TENS will compete with the pain signals from a contraction and prevent some of them from reaching the brain. This is most effective in the first period of labour.
• Focus – the TENS stimulation gives you a source of focus as you work through a contraction, reducing your conscious awareness of the sensation of the contraction.

During a contraction you will press the integral ‘BOOST’ button to deliver a burst of high intensity TENS stimulation in order to block pain signals. You do not need to keep holding the BOOST button – just press at the end of the contraction to return to normal stimulation. Between contractions you will set the TENS to an intensity comfortable for you in order to enhance your body’s endorphin response and encourage relaxation and recovery.

You should start using your TENS unit as early as possible in order to get most benefit.. Hiring a TENS unit is great because you will be have pain relief on hand to use at home from the very start of your labour. In fact, studies have shown that women who use TENS spend a greater portion of their labour at home.

Every woman’s body responds differently to the TENS stimulation AND to labour, so there’s no definitive answer. It is difficult to accurately measure how effective a form of pain relief it is. Research has shown that women using TENS in labour are less likely to request additional forms of pain relief, and are less likely to report very high levels of pain. Probably the best indication of TENS’ effectiveness is that nearly every woman who uses TENS in her labour says she will do so again.

TENS won’t stop pain – no form of pain relief in labour can do that other than an epidural – but it does help women manage the pain they experience. TENS has helped many, many women avoid or reduce drugs in labour.

Using an obsetric TENS unit in labour provides a woman with many benefits. The most obvious of these are that there are no side effects for either mother or baby. In addition, TENS:

• is totally under your control
• gives you a positive source of focus during labour
• allows you to be mobile and upright
• can be combined with other forms of pain relief, such as gas and pethidine
• can be used at home from the start of labour

You may wish to combine TENS with other forms of pain management such as hynobirthing, the shower, and a fitball. Please be aware though that the TENS unit will need to be removed if you get into water, and the endorphin effects of the TENS stimulation can dissipate after removal.