Krystal wrote to share her story of her baby boy’s arrival – She used our Labour TENS Machine for pain relief and was able to have a medicine-free birth. Here’s her TENS machine review:
My labour began early morning on this day, this was my first baby and I was super excited (and nervous) about becoming a mother. Early labour was pretty easy going, I was in bed at 7-8am with mild constant cramps, not really thinking much of it.
I got up and had breakfast, actually sold something on eBay the previous night and the buyer organised to pick up the item from my house at 11am that day. Just before they arrived (10am) I went to the loo and saw very light spotting on my knickers, again not thinking much of it. I got on with my day.
I rang my husband all excited telling him I’d sold something on eBay and at the end of the conversation I said “Oh by the way, I think I’ve got light bleeding, but I can’t tell because it’s very light pink.” I was pretty casual about the whole thing, and hubby was shocked at how calm I was!
Then 2 hours later, I had even more spotting. This was definitely blood. I was more concerned now so I rang my midwife and she said I was in early labour, and I could have my baby in the next 12-48 hours. For the next 20 minutes my body was shaking in excitement and nerves.
The next couple hours went by and I’d calmed down a lot, so I went about cooking dinner. My cramps were very much consistent and I could still do normal activities. It was just like normal period pains.
It took around 13 hours before active labour began at around 8pm that same day. I was in bed by this point to preserve energy and try get some sleep. This was when I also put on the TENS machine.
By 12 midnight I told my husband “It’s time. I want to go to the hospital.” The pains were getting pretty intense. Turns out I was 4cm dilated! The rest of my labour was pretty straight forward and quick. Besides the TENS I also used ‘gas and air’ (word of advice, bring big bottles of water with you, your mouth gets SO dry).
At one point, the TENS Machine cord came undone from one of the pads and boy did I feel the real intensity of the contractions, especially in ‘transition’!
But using combined methods of TENS + ‘Gas and air’ got me through my whole labour drug free (don’t get me wrong, at 8cm dilated I was begging for an epidural, but encouragement from my husband and midwife got me through it!).
My little baby boy eventually made his way into the world at 5:04am on the 13/12/17. I had a small first degree tear but no stitches required. To all new mums-to-be, yes labour is painful but it is not pain to be ‘scared of’. Before labour I was scared of it, but looking back now I feel like superwoman, I could achieve anything!
And yes, if I choose to have more kids, I would go through it all again in a heartbeat.
I’ll just be sure to hire the TENS machine again!
I am so in love with my baby boy and couldn’t be any happier.