Belated Reviews: Labor and Delivery Tips

Wow, it's been 6 weeks since I was discharged from the hospital! Time really does fly and every week (sometimes in just a few days) you discover something new, for example the other day, Max started following the toys on his musical mobile!

Anyway, thought I'd post a few reviews of things/products that helped me during labor and delivery. First up, the Elle Tens Machine. It's a drug-free method of pain relief that involves attaching electrodes and sending electric pulses to your back.

Not sure if it's different in the US, but here they tell you not to call or even go into the hospital until your contractions are regular and between 5 and 7 minutes apart. The Tens Machine def helped me through the initial stage of labor, which I found EXCRUCIATING! Sorry to scare any pregnant women out there... the Tens Machine has a burst function which ups the pain relief during a contraction. I was def able to sleep better through the night by using it. However as I went from latent to active labor, it didn't help as much because the pain was just that much worse! I didn't actually use it through active labor in the hospital because I disconnected the wires on the way to the hospital and then completely forgot about it!

The Tens Machine is not cheap. I kept trying to get a used one on Ebay (they advise you to buy new electrodes anyway) but they all seemed to hover around the £40 area and a new one is about £50-70. I ended up buying mine from Babies R Us when it went on sale and I had a 20% coupon! I figure I could always lend it to anyone who wanted to use it but have it for any future children!

In terms of other tips that helped me through the labor pain, the movements we practiced during pregnancy yoga were great! I was basically on my knees leaning over the back of the hospital bed (which was reclined at about a 50 degree angle) and I would circle my hips as well as move my hips backward and forward. It didn't completely take the pain away of course, but combined with gas and air, it helped a lot. That being said, I didn't think gas and air would help at all because it just sounds really weak but I was able to get through labor and delivery with just gas and air and pethidine! (And really, the pethidine just helped me sleep through the night, since I got to the hospital around 11 pm Friday night!)

Overall:
5/5 for usefulness, especially if you have a long latent stage of labor like me (Over 24 hours!)
3/5 for cost - you can rent them, although it's difficult to gauge when to order them in case you're early or late! If you plan on having more than 1 child like me, it's def a worthy investment!