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What is TENS?
How does a TENS machine work? TENS is Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve stimulation or TENS for short. It is an effective method of pain relief involving the use of a mild electrical current. Users attach Electrode pads to the affected part of the body and then switch on the TENS Machine. The TENS Machine passes small electrical impulses to the affected area of your body, this is where the user feels a tingling sensation similar to pins and needles. These tingling sensations which are the electrical impulses reduce the pain signals going to the bodies spinal cord and brain, which help to relieve pain and relax muscles. They also stimulate the production of endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers. What is TENS? Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or TENS for short is an effective method of pain relief involving the use of a mild electrical current. Users attach Electrode pads to the affected part of the body and then switch on the TENS Machine. The TENS Machine passes small electrical impulses to the affected area of your body, this is where the user feels a tingling sensation similar to pins and needles. These tingling sensations which are the electrical impulses reduce the pain signals going to the bodies spinal cord and brain, which help to relieve pain and relax muscles. They also stimulate the production of endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers. What TENS is used for? TENS can be used to help reduce pain and muscle spasms caused by a wide range of conditions including: arthritis period pain knee pain neck pain back pain sports injuries It is also used as a method of pain relief during labour. “One in 5 Australians aged 45 and over are living with persistent, ongoing pain.” Trying TENS If you’re thinking about trying TENS, it’s a good idea to speak to your GP about a referral to a physiotherapist. TENS machines are available for purchase or hire. If you have Private Health Insurance you may be eligible for a rebate on your purchase – just check with your provider. How to use TENS The information below is a general guide on how to use a TENS machine. You should always follow the manufacturer’s specific instructions. TENS machines are small and lightweight, so you can use them while you’re working or on the move. You can put it in your pocket, clip it to your belt, attach it to a lanyard or hold it in your hand. You can use TENS throughout the day for as long as you like, although it shouldn’t be used while you’re driving, operating machinery, or in the bath or shower. Positioning the pads Make sure the machine is switched off before you attach the pads to your skin. Position the pads either side of the painful area, at least 2.5cm (1 inch) apart. Never place the pads over: the front or sides of your neck your temples your mouth or eyes your chest and upper back at the same time irritated, infected or broken skin varicose veins numb areas Turning it on and adjusting the strength Turn on the TENS machine when the pads are attached in the correct places. You’ll feel a slight tingling sensation pass through your skin.The machine allows you to control the strength of the electrical impulses by simply using the arrow buttons. Start on a low setting and gradually increase it until the sensation feels strong but comfortable. If the tingling sensation starts to feel painful or uncomfortable, reduce it slightly. Switch the TENS machine off after you’ve finished using it and remove the electrodes from your skin. With reusable electrodes, place them back on the paper backing they came on to preserve the stickiness! Are there any risks of side effects? For most people, TENS is a safe treatment with no side effects. Some people may be allergic to the pads and their skin may become red and irritated, but special pads for people with allergies are available. TENS isn’t safe for everyone to use. Don’t use it without first seeking medical advice if: you have a pacemaker or another type of electrical or metal implant in your body you’re pregnant, or there’s a chance you might be pregnant – TENS may not be recommended early in pregnancy. (TENS machines are suitable during labour) you have epilepsy or a heart problem
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Pelvic Floor – What Mums Need to Know
Great interview with a Womens Health Physiotherapist with Newbornbaby.com.au regarding Pelvic Floor. No woman will get through her pregnancy without hearing these two little words, and the confusion which often surrounds them can be enough to trigger a minor panic attack. Most of us know it has something to do with bladder control but beyond that, its significance to our bodies and our lives can be vague. Yet it’s extremely important. And the impact on our pelvic floor by pregnancy and birth is something we can work to minimise from conception. To make things a little clearer, we spoke with Women’s Health Physiotherapist and Director of BeActive Physiotherapy, Shira Kramer. What is the Pelvic Floor? The pelvic floor is the base of a group of muscles referred to as the ‘core’. These muscles are located in the pelvis and attach to the pubic bone and the front and tail-bone (coccyx) and the back. “The pelvic floor muscles work together with the deep abdominal muscles and deep back muscles to support the spine,” says Dr Kramer. “They also help to control the pressure inside the abdominal cavity and assist in supporting the bladder, bowel and uterus in women. “In addition they help maintain bladder and bowel control and play an important role in sexual sensation and function.” How does pregnancy and birth effect the Pelvic Floor? In pregnancy the hormone ‘relaxin’ is released throughout the body and softens the tissues to accommodate for the growing baby. “This softening effect of relaxing along the increased weight of the baby (and body weight) places pressure on the pelvic floor muscles,” says Dr Kramer. The pelvic floor muscles and ligaments are stretched during childbirth to allow delivery of the baby from the pelvic outlet. Will the outcome be the same for everyone? According to Dr Kramer, there are a number of risk factors that contribute to pelvic floor dysfunction. These include: multiple births instrumental births (using forceps or ventouse) long second stage of labour severe perineal tearing, or large babies Can we help to prevent or minimise Pelvic Floor issues? “Absolutely!” says Dr Kramer. Pelvic floor muscle exercises are an effective way to maintain pelvic floor strength during and after pregnancy. “Good pelvic floor muscle tone enables women to maintain bladder and bowel control through pregnancy and into motherhood”. “They also help reduce the risk of developing prolapse during and after pregnancy and assist with recovery after birth.” What can we expect following birth? Childbirth is essentially a trauma to the pelvic floor muscle. Like any soft tissue injury there may be pain, swelling and inflammation. The pelvic floor muscles take time to get back to their usual state after birth. The effects of the hormone relaxin can last up to 6 months after birth and pelvic floor care post delivery is crucial in the recovery process. Dr Kramer recommends a regime of rest, ice, compression and elevation in the first few days following a vaginal delivery. Is it important to have your pelvic floor professionally assessed following birth? “Yes,” says Dr Kramer. Most hospitals have a physiotherapist come and do a postnatal check and give advice on how to care for pelvic floor muscles post delivery. If appropriate they will also teach you how to activate these muscles and give you advice to optimise recovery. Those not assessed in hospital or those requiring follow up should check in to see a local women’s health physiotherapist for assessment and management. How can we determine the level of impact to our pelvic floor? Being aware of what signs and symptoms to look out for is crucial. If in doubt seek a professional opinion. It is recommended to seek professional assessment by a women’s health physiotherapist if any of the symptoms below are experienced: accidentally leaking urine when you exercise, laugh, cough or sneeze frequently needing to go to the toilet finding it difficult to empty your bladder or bowel accidentally losing control of your bladder or bowel accidentally passing wind, or sensation of bulging, dragging or heaviness in pelvic area (prolapse) pain in the pelvic area What exercises/steps should we take to get our pelvic floor back on track? Pelvic floor muscle care should be prioritised in pregnancy and in the postnatal period. “For the first few days following delivery rest, ice and compression are recommended,” says Dr Kramer. “Integrating pelvic floor exercises as guided by health care professional is integral to recovery and optimising function. To perform a basic pelvic floor exercise tighten and lift around your front and back passage as if you are holding on to go to the toilet, and releasing. These can be performed during pregnancy as well. “Make pelvic floor exercise a part of your daily life,” says Dr Kramer. “Tightening your pelvic floor muscles every time you cough, sneeze or lift. “Doing some regular exercise such as walking. “Progressing your exercises by doing them during the day in different positions such as standing, sitting or leaning on your hands and knees.” How do we know if we’re performing the exercises properly? Ideally an assessment by a women’s health physiotherapist is recommended, as they have a variety of assessment tools which may include a gentle digital examination or an assessment with real-time ultrasound. “At home as a one off test to see if you are on the right track try to stop the flow of urine whilst you are on the toilet. If you can stop the flow you are likely on the right track. If there is no change to the flow you are unlikely activating the muscle correctly.” Are there any activities to avoid following birth? “Ease back into exercise and make sure your program is safe for your pelvic floor,” says Dr Kramer. “Avoid high impact exercise such as running and jumping, no lifting unless absolutely necessary and set your pelvic floor muscles before you lift, sneeze or cough. “Also try to avoid constipation, putting on too much weight and repetitive coughing and straining.” How do we know if things are improving? A professional can assess for progress by testing the strength (how hard you can squeeze) of the contraction as well as the endurance of the contraction (how long you can hold it for). For many women, it is important to follow a specific exercise program tailored to their individual needs. If you are unsure of whether you are exercising your pelvic floor muscles correctly or you have urinary problems, you should make an appointment with a women’s health physiotherapist. For those of you who are planning a natural birth and still deciding on a labour TENS for pain relief, consider the Elle TENS+ which is an all in one labour TENS, general/sports TENS and a Pelvic Floor Stimulator – which does the Pelvic Floor exercises for you! Alternatively if you don’t need a labour TENS consider the SensaTONE Pelvic Floor Stimulator. Relevant posts: https://elletens.com.au/incontinence-bladder-control-problems-in-women/ http://newbornbaby.com.au/pelvic-floor/
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Smart TENS Ambassador Trent Merrin loves his Smart TENS!
We are really proud to have one of Australia’s greatest professional rugby league footballer Trent Merrin supporting our TENS products. Trent’s experience is a great example of the benefit of TENS to support his recovery from injuries. We are super excited to announce Panthers own Trent Merrin as an ambassador for our Smart TENS machine. Trent loves the Smart TENS and has been using the it for a while now as he mentioned on his post. It is a great form of natural pain relief. TENS can be used for rehabilitation and provides pain relief for sprains and injuries all over the body. TENS is recognised as a safe and highly effective method of pain relief and is regularly recommended by medical professionals. Being a drug free alternative it is great for people concerned or restricted with use of medications. What conditions can be treated with TENS? Many painful conditions (and some non-painful conditions) can be treated with TENS. As with all other forms of therapy, it is essential to have the cause of your pain diagnosed by your medical adviser beforehand. Pain can be a warning sign, to alert us that something may be wrong. Some types of chronic pain may result in continuous discomfort, depression, restriction in our movements and general functioning. Acute pain is usually more severe and of shorter duration, e.g childbirth, trauma or surgery. Acute and chronic pain can be treated with TENS and some of the more common below: Acute sprains/strains e.g sports and occupational injuries Rheumatoid arthritis Osteoarthritis of one or several joints Ankylosing spondylosis Neck pain, cervical spondylosis, whiplash injuries Low back pain resulting from strains, prolapsed disc, spondylitis, Osteoporosis Referred pains such as sciatica Fibrositis/myofascial pain syndromes Tendonitis/bursitis Carpal tunnel syndrome Peripheral nerve injuries and neuropathy of various causes Phantom limb pain Post herpetic (shingles) neuralgia Post operative neuralgia and scar tissue pain Pain in cancer and the terminally ill Labour pain Nausea and vomiting Migraine How do I use the Smart TENS? It’s very simple, connect the electrodes to the leads (included in the box) which you insert into the top of the Smart TENS, peel off the backing from electrodes and apply them to the area where you are feeling pain, turn it on and select your preferred mode. With its 4 pre-set modes for ease of use: constant, burst, massage and mixed, you are in control, and can increase or decrease the intensity of the pulses as you wish. Information about best positions for electrode placement is included in the pack as well as a free digital download of Dr Gordon Gadsby’s book titled ‘An easy guide to TENS pain relief’. In this illustrated and easy to understand guide to TENS therapy, Dr Gadsby provides clear guidance on what painful conditions can be effectively treated with TENS machines. Tip: Remember if you have private health insurance you may be eligible for a rebate on all TENS devices, check with your provider today.
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Peer and Professional Support For New Mums
Peer and Professional Support For New Mums – Liz Wilkes, My Midwives The millennium mum is facing a stream of very modern challenges in her quest to make informed choices for baby, herself whilst staying afloat in our increasingly busy world. Having answers at our fingertips with various internet and social media connections is a double edged sword. It provides the ability to get the answer to your problem quickly but without any ability to put that answer into the context. As women connect more with each other over the internet, it appears that anxiety may be increasing. Are women are losing their connections with each other? Perhaps we should take some steps to move back to basics. The support required during pregnancy and after a baby is born is unique to each mum – anxiety needs to be reduced with hands on help which is individualised to each mum and bub. My Midwives provides women one on one midwifery care from the moment they are pregnant, until their baby is six weeks old. Here are some tips to help reduce stress and anxiety for New Mums: During pregnancy: Tell those who provide horror stories or negative accounts to go elsewhere. Make sure you spend time in each pregnancy visit talking to your care provider about any worries or fears. It is very important to make sure that the person providing your care has time to spend with you– at least 30 minutes each visit should be spent just talking – so that you feel comfortable and confident at the end of your visit. If you are not getting what you need in pregnancy, find another source of information. Independent antenatal classes, birth preparation groups and private midwives can give another perspective if you are having difficulty finding out what you need to know. Post Birth: In the first weeks after birth it is important to have hands that help. Have a note on the door and when you are asleep, stay asleep. When you are awake and accepting visitors make sure that every visitor knows they will have a job to do. It is not the time now to run around and do housework whilst your visitors nurse the baby. Make sure everyone starts a load of washing – or hangs it out – or sweeps the floor, goes and does a quick grocery shop. Your care provider after birth should be able to visit you in your own home for at least the first week to two weeks. Medicare rebates midwifery care during the postnatal period for up to six weeks, so make sure you are getting regular professional advice regarding feeding, baby care and maternal wellbeing. Again, if you are not getting this from your current care provider seek another alternative. Ongoing support: Mentally acknowledge that you will need more support than you are used to in the pregnancy and post birth period. Most millennium mums are used to being independent and having many busy aspects to their lives. Recognise that for a period life will be less fast. There needs to be time to slow down and enjoy these ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences. Having an excellent peer support group can start with an antenatal group or “Birth Prep” group which will turn into a “Mothers Group” with a group of mums with similar age babies. This can be an excellent way of providing each other with company and support. Making sure that this is a positive space is something that every woman can do. Look after yourself and your partner – you need 20 minutes for each of you and 20 minutes together every day…..that could be a walk together….or just a 20 minute cuppa or meal. Set up with your group that one mum can mind two babies to give each other a break now and again to have a date night or even a sleep. Pregnancy, birth and the post birth period is amazing. We live in a world where we see every single thing that happens in an instant. Remembering the importance of the human connection and the ability to give each other human support is never more important that in the time where we bring a new life into the world. Trying the old fashioned strategies of connection may be the thing that makes a difference. Liz Wilkes is the acting Managing Director of My Midwives, a midwife of 22 years and a mother of three. My Midwives provides Birth Preparation and Mothers Groups and antenatal classes and postnatal care for their clients and other visitors. See www.mymidwives.com.au
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Constance Hall thanks Childbirth for her ‘Wee’ Problem.
Australian Blogger, Freedom Fighter and Queen lover, Constance Hall certainly knows how to grab our attention with her honest, funny and sincere approach to life, love, children and relationships. This Queen, engages with women on a level that is open, honest and she just says it how it is. Lets be honest we love that! Last week, I read her FB post about her ‘wee’ problem. It starts out pretty romantic with Con and her beau Denim tiptoeing through a forest with her knight in shining armour giving her a piggy back. In a very brief post, Con explains that she wee’d on Denim when she jumped on his back! “Thanks Childbirth” Con says! Embarrasing… yes, does it just happen to Con….No! Of course I had a giggle, but it got me thinking about my pelvic floor and my near misses just like the 26 thousand women who responded to that FB post. Con’s honest post just made me feel even more passionate about how incontinence really affects women especially after childbirth and also how much I admired Con for posting her experience. All too often we brush the issue of incontinence under the carpet because we are too busy and we make the usual excuses that we have all heard before. It’s pretty sad that we are okay with the fact that we wee, when we sneeze, laugh, jump on the trampoline with our kids and even if we go to the gym or for a run. These are all the things we enjoy doing and yet most of us do nothing about our problem, sometimes we would rather avoid these activities than deal with the real issue. More than 4.8 million Australian’s experience bladder or bowel control problems – that figure is not just women its men also and it’s a huge number of people! You can of course use pads for the rest of your life, but why not see a doctor, a physio or use a pelvic floor stimulator…..do something to improve your quality of life, so each time flu season arrives you are not crossing your legs every time you have to sneeze. Imagine the freedom of not having to think about it or worry about it everyday, not having to plan where is the nearest toilet? It’s time for action and its time to get that pelvic floor in order! There are heaps of resources available online – Continence Foundation of Australia being one. Start those conversations with your doctor or physio, they can help you to find your pelvic floor, show you how to do pelvic floor exercises properly or suggest a pelvic floor stimulator like the SensaTONE which will exercise the pelvic floor muscles for you. There are lots of aids on the market like the SensaTONE or it may be that you just need to do your exercises like you brush your teeth – part of your daily routine. Not only do pelvic floor muscle exercises help with bladder and bowel function, they reduce the risk of prolapse which often involves surgery to remediate. Women recover quickly from natural childbirth and C-sections and even better it will increase sexual sensation and orgasmic potential and who doesn’t want that 😉 What are you waiting for? Take control of your Pelvic Floor today.
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Help Katie – Super Mum from Canberra
We love to being part of fundraising and sponsorship for amazing charities such as #RedNose, #StillBirthFoundation and #Sydney2Camberra Ride. Again, today it hit home with us just how precious life is and how much all the wonderful charities and hospitals out there do to help protect and save our most precious gifts – our babies. We are really saddened to hear today that a local Canberra family has lost one of their little twins born 25 weeks premature. Mum Katie, has shared that their precious little Amelia’s heartbreaking struggle ended at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney late last week. You see, this has not been the only struggle that this beautiful family has had to endure this year as their son Hugh suffered from acute liver failure in May. Hugh is thankfully well on the road to recovery. Being a Canberra resident means many trips to Westmead hospital for follow up treatment and appointments for Hugh. On 30 July, Katie was concerned some thing wasn’t right with her pregnancy and so that night went to Canberra Hospital to have the twins checked, she hasn’t been home since. The next day, supermum Katie was flown to Sydney to undergo treatment for what would be an alleviation for her twins Stage 3 Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. Unfortunately, due to complications with the surgery, she unexpectedly went through an enduring delivery to welcome her 25 weeker twins on 3 August. Sadly, exactly 2 weeks after the birth of Amelia and Hannah, Amelia passed away surrounded by the love of her family. As you can imagine it is quite a challenge at this sad time to be away from home, support networks and her son, while Katie (and Daniel when possible) stays in Sydney to be with little Hannah. Beautiful little Hannah is fighter and a little character, Katie says. Unfortunately, the hospital where the twins were admitted has no accommodation on site for family/patients who need to travel for treatment and little Hannah cannot be transferred home to Canberra Hospital until she is stable and NICU beds are available.Any assistance to help Katie and her family to pay for reasonable accomodation and living expences away from home would be appreciated. Katie and Daniel have unselfishly told friends that donations to the charities such as Heartfelt, Send Hope Not Flowers, Red Nose, Little Wonder or Life’s Little Treasures are welcome in honour of Amelia. In addition, a very kind friend and fellow micropremmie mum as set up a gofundme page to help Katie, Daniel, Hugh and Hannah with the costs associated with being by Hannah’s side during her time in Sydney. We would be very grateful for any support you can offer to this wonderful Canberra family. If you would like to donate please visit: https://www.gofundme.com/help-katie-super-mum or support any of the above charities listed in Amelia’s name. Sending you love and strength Katie, Daniel, Hugh and little Hannah xx
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