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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 Elle TENS machine. Trent loves the Elle 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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