[Midwife]

Hey has anyone ever used a tens unit to simulate contractions?? How safe is it and how hard is it to do?? Thanks for any advice.

[big bumpin]

Hey has anyone ever used a tens unit to simulate contractions?? How safe is it and how hard is it to do?? Thanks for any advice.

I also haven't used one before but really want to try. I hope someone has the answer.

[pregnantscubasteve40]

I've used a tens before and it makes it pretty close to real. it does hurt when you get to close contractions. i'll try to find my contraction time sheet and put it up here

[Midwife]

I've used a tens before and it makes it pretty close to real. it does hurt when you get to close contractions. i'll try to find my contraction time sheet and put it up here

That will be great thank you. Did you do it yourself or did someone run the tens unit for you. 1-10 how painful did the strongest contractions get??

[pregnantscubasteve40]

I've used a tens before and it makes it pretty close to real. it does hurt when you get to close contractions. i'll try to find my contraction time sheet and put it up here

That will be great thank you. Did you do it yourself or did someone run the tens unit for you. 1-10 how painful did the strongest contractions get??

I did it myself. when it is set up properly it can get to a 9 or 10, it all depends on your pain tolerance

[big bumpin]

[quote='Midwife' pid='225755' dateline='1448940602']
[quote='pregnantscubasteve40' pid='225751' dateline='1448939794']
I've used a tens before and it makes it pretty close to real. it does hurt when you get to close contractions. i'll try to find my contraction time sheet and put it up here

what settings do you use for the tens? Are they on the time sheet or do we just figure it out ourselves?

[preg.birth]

I have been curious about this as well... Have heard about it, but never tried it and have wanted to try it.

Any suggestion or guidance as to a good yet affordable unit to purchase?

[pregnantscubasteve40]

I've used a tens before and it makes it pretty close to real. it does hurt when you get to close contractions. i'll try to find my contraction time sheet and put it up here

what settings do you use for the tens? Are they on the time sheet or do we just figure it out ourselves?

i'll find the sheet that i made and put it up for you

[pregnantscubasteve40]

I got my tens unit from the VA for back pain that i have. I'm sure that there are affordable tens out there i just don't know where to get them

[joshlg_uk]

Big Bumpin et al,

Thanks for your msg, I thought I would reply publically as several of you are interested in this.

I bought a tens machine first of all for another issue and tried it and it gives a sort of vibration and pain effect if you turn it up enough but I think an ems electronic muscle stimulator is actually better because it is designed to actually cause muscles to contract. I purchased one from Amazon for about £30 and they are good - they do create abdominal contractions or thigh contractions depending on where you place the pads. Mine has various modes and you can set them to trigger at up to 75 second intervals and to last up to about 45 seconds. I would love to have found one that worked for longer 'on' periods because obviously real contractions can last up to 90 seconds but I never found one with that ability for an affordable price. Of course if you have a roleplay midwife who will control the pains for you then you can have them take control of the contractions and to ramp up their frequency, intensity and duration manually but so far I've had no joy in finding anyone to do that yet (I'm open to offers -Southern UK!)

I have watched the videos of men being given contractions on hospital grade machiines where they're really apparently in serious pain but to be honest on my £30 domestic unit that simply isn't possible. It's true that if you start out with my machine on ten you would be in quite a lot of pain and it would be quite a shock but I find when I roleplay labour your tolerance for the pain/sensation increases and so you end up needing to wind it up to ten anyway by the end and it probably still isn't anywhere near the real thing - i.e. I can still walk, talk etc whereas I think in a real end of first stage contraction it's so intense you simply can't think of anything else but the contraction.

To increase the intensity of sensation I also use an inflatable vibrating butt plug and being straight and having never engaged in any anal sex before I find this very very uncomfortable indeed - probably worse than the EMS, however by combining the two together I find that the overall sensation of desire to expel combined with electrically induced contractions has my legs and belly shaking and me whimpering and beginning to groan quite involuntarily. Combined with maternity clothes, bra, balloon belly etc I really do feel that I get a pretty good simulation of labour - it's intense. The cables all hanging down etc also adds to it by making me think I'm hooked up to machines etc and it's awkward to move around.

I suspect though if you want to be screaming in agony you'll need some kind of hospital grade machine. I believe it's quite safe as long as you keep the machine away from the chest area.

Let me know how you progress with your project - personally I think it's well worth the modest outlay.

joshlg_uk

[pregnantscubasteve40]

for all that asked how I did my contraction with my tens here is the up-dated sheet.

depending how how long you want your labor to last you can adjust the times for this. I personally do a 12-14 hour labor, if I want a difficult labor i’ll push it to 20 hours. For that you just stretch the times out to fit your needs.


Early labor

Hour’s 1-2
Tens set to 2-3
contractions last 40 to 60 seconds and occur every 5 minutes

Hour’s 3-4
Tens set to 4-5
contraction last 40 to 60 seconds and occur every 5 minutes

Hour’s 5-6
Tens set to 6
contraction last 40 to 60 seconds and occur every 5 minutes

Hour’s 7-8
Tens set to 7
contraction last 40 to 60 seconds and occur every 5 minutes

Hour’s 9-10
Tens set to 8
contraction last 40 to 60 seconds and occur every 5 minutes





Active labor
Hours 11-12
Tens set to 9
contraction last 45 to 50 seconds and occur every 4 minutes

Hour’s 13-14
Tens set to 10 or highest setting
contraction last 60 seconds and occur every 2-1/2 minutes





* please note that the setting number are based off of what my tens unit tops out at. so you might need to make adjustments if your tens goes higher than that.

[HollyWd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b81Cr97ANrk

I know there are many videos, but I always found The Try Guys from Buzzfeed to be fair and honest about their experiences. They also all use slightly different placement of the tens unit pads, so you can see how you would like to hook yours up.