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My name is Megan, and I'm a Mum to three beautiful boys. I love to share the good, the bad and the ugly, giving my readers a real insight into the day to day life of a Mum of three.
My youngest was born in December of 2022, and I laboured with the help of the TensCare Perfect Mama+, a maternity TENS machine designed to provide natural labour pain relief that you control yourself. I'd like to share with you my birth story and experience using a maternity TENS for the first time.
During the weeks leading up to giving birth I found myself often wondering, will this labour be as good as my second one? Can I manage another quick labour? I was certainly trying to manifest a quick labour anyway! Although I’d laboured twice previously, for me, the nerves were just as prominent the third time around!
I was convinced that I was going to go into labour well before my due date, but lo and behold 7 days went by and little one still hadn’t graced us with their presence. What can I say, I must be a good host?!
The day before I gave birth I was having an episode of reduced movements so off I went to the maternity unit. After a long 7 hours, I was reassured that the baby was fine and off I went back home. I arrived home around 3am, I had to get up to do the school run at 7am and I just knew that this would be the time I was going to go into labour.
I got my 4 year old ready for school and dropped him off. I arrived back home and felt a twinge. I thought, is this it? Around 12pm the twinges really started to ramp up so I reached for my Perfect Mama+ tens machine. I had never used a tens machine with my previous labours so I was really curious to see the difference it would make. As my 2 year old swayed through each contraction with me, I would turn my tens machine up. I found it such an amazing distraction from the pain.
I carried on at home with my tens machine but then a bit of panic set in. I was worried about if I had another really quick labour whilst home alone with only my 2 year old. To note, my 2 year old was born within 2 hours of arriving at the hospital so this was almost certainly a thought in the back of my head!
I got my case and put it in the car, collected Oscar from school and went to my Mum’s house! Once I arrived there, the contractions really ramped up, I was literally in my Mum’s kitchen swaying side to side wearing my tens machine. My brother found it quite amusing!
By around half 4 I said to my brother I think you need to take me to the hospital. The contractions were so close together and I was really struggling to even talk at this point. As we were driving off my partner pulled up at my Mum’s house. I said to Luke (my partner) ‘I think I’m in labour but let me get to the hospital to check first, there is no point in you coming if I’m not dilated enough’. Part of me wondered if this was really labour because i’d managed so well at home on my own!
I arrived at the hospital around 5pm and had to wait in the waiting room for around an hour. This hour was definitely hard for me, especially as I was on my own! In a waiting room full of people, I stood against a chair and swayed side to side through each contraction, grabbing my tens machine to adjust the setting each time.
Once triaged the midwife said ‘I am pretty sure this baby is coming soon.’ She gave me some gas and air and examined me. The midwife said ‘You’re 4cm but I can literally feel your waters bulging, once they go this baby is coming out’.
At 6pm, I entered the delivery room. At this point I was still fully dressed in my underwear and leggings. I was using my gas and air, and tens machine alongside one another to work through each contraction. The midwife said to me ‘I think you really need to call your partner to come’. I called Luke and luckily he had already set off (if he had waited for my call I think he more than likely would have missed the birth!!)
Luke arrived around 6.30pm, my contractions had almost no let up by this point. My contractions very quickly changed and I couldn’t help myself from what I describe as mooing. It’s a noise I couldn’t stop myself from making. I did it with my second son when he was almost born, so I knew that baby was coming very soon. Then, I felt a pop and my waters went. It was only actually one of them, you have two sets! I wanted to birth standing up (like I did with my second son) but I was getting a lot of cramp in my legs. This time around the most natural way for me was on all fours very close to the floor. In this position, during a contraction, I felt another pop and I genuinely thought the baby had come out. It was actually my second waters, the midwife and Luke had to watch their step as water was all over!
Not long after, at 6.52pm little Obi made his arrival weighing 8lbs. I felt on top of the world! Once it had settled in that the baby had been born, I was lay on the bed and realised I still had my tens machine on- it was still working it’s magic right until the very end!
As this was my third baby, I found the after pains quite unbearable! I used my tens machine for the first few days following birth especially when I was feeding the baby.
I do believe that the tens machine helped me to stay at home for as long as possible, and contributed to me having a 52 minute labour once I arrived in the delivery room. Highly recommend 👏🏻
Megan Cagney
