Nicole wrote to share her story of baby Frank’s arrival – She used our Labour TENS Machine for pain relief and was really pleased it was such a big help. Here’s her TENS machine review:
“I was induced and I just used the TENS machine, no other medical pain relief. Without the TENS Machine I don’t think I could have done it!
“Our son Frank was born on 5 November at 00.04. He was a little bit early (he was due 25 November) and weighed in at 2.558 kg. The hospital had been a little bit worried about his growth at our last few checkups (it seemed to be slowing down and we had some abnormal readings for blood flow) so they suggested being induced around the 37 week mark.
“I was quite anxious about this as I was not too keen to be induced. My partner and I spent a few days digesting the information and worked out we could keep to our birth plan as much as possible (with a few tweaks due to the induction) – we wanted to approach it from a calm birth perspective, and continue to aim for a natural birth.
“I also worked with my doula in the days before to have an induction massage and learn a few techniques hoping it might bring on a natural labour!
“We went into hospital on the Saturday to have the balloon catheter put in, anticipating to be in overnight and have the drip on Sunday. When I saw the doctor late Saturday afternoon, she did an examination to find that I was already 3cm dilated! So my waters were broken and the drip put in that evening at around 6.30 pm. My partner set up the room with dark lighting, music and aromatherapy – we had lots of comments from the midwives that they were loving the setup and soundtrack!
“The contractions started slowly but did pick up the pace from around 8 pm. The TENS machine I had hired was my lifesaver I think! I had quite strong contractions for the next couple of hours and managed those with breathing, the TENS machine and some serious relaxing in between. I also made quite a few noises in the stronger contractions – something I thought I would be very self conscious about but ended up coming very naturally!
“I had a few moments of self doubt but my partner and our doula Fiona were great at motivating me to keep going. I ended up needing the heart rate monitoring clip put on Frank’s head – so the doctor also did an internal examination and told me I was 10 cm dilated around 11 pm! It was the information I needed to keep going and I ended up delivering Frank just after midnight – no medical pain relief and no other interventions apart from the induction itself. So I was pretty chuffed with this 🙂
“My partner was an amazing support throughout the labour – our preparation really helped us both in the lead up and meant he knew and could anticipate how he could help.”