During labour, your body is hard at work, releasing hormones like oxytocin to help with contractions. But along with the powerful sensations of bringing your baby into the world, you might also experience discomfort. TENS machines come into play by essentially "interrupting" the pain signals that travel along your nerves to your brain. By stimulating these nerves with gentle electrical pulses, the signals of pain can be dampened or overridden, offering you relief without the need for medication.
The space in which you give birth can have a profound impact on your labour experience and overall wellbeing. With the majority of births taking place in a hospital setting, it is often assumed that either a- the hospital will have everything you need, or b- you don't have a say in how the environment can look or feel. Taking ownership of how your birth environment looks and more importantly feels, is fundamental in facilitating physiological birth and allowing the birthing woman to feel safe and calm.
When I fell pregnant for the first time I had been a midwife for 3.5years and had seen all kinds of birth. Natural, epidural, silent, screaming, waterbirth, forceps, caesareans. People often ask if my midwifery knowledge helped or hindered my mindset for labour and birth, and I took as a big PLUS! Having seen so many types of birth I knew exactly how I wanted mine to look....