Julie Savage got the birth she wanted second-time-around with a little help from her MamaTENS.

"When considering my pain relief options, even though I wanted to be open minded about tens as a form of pain relief, I considered that I would probably need gas and air quite soon, opting for an epidural if everything went wrong. I am so proud that MamaTENS was able to give me the birth I wanted! It really was a good choice", she said.

"The pre-set programmes offered me the right amount of pain relief right up-to transition and the ability to be able to boost that pain relief when I had a contraction and increase the level of intensity when I needed to was really comforting", she added.

For medical reasons, Julie was unable to have a natural birth with her first pregnancy. Julie suffered from an uncommon medical condition called Obstetric Cholestasis; a liver condition, with the only outward symptom being itchy skin. The main risk of this condition is not to the mother, but to the unborn child; carrying a risk of premature birth, foetal distress and stillbirth. Unfortunately Julie also suffered from pre-eclampsia and her first-born was in a breech position. Despite the odds she delivered a healthy baby boy called Robert.

When Julie became pregnant for the second time, she decided that she wanted to try and give birth naturally. "I was aware of the risks attached to having a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean), but definitely wanted to do this for myself and give TENS as a natural form of pain relief, a good go, before I turned to other forms of pain relief" said Julie.

Julie developed Obstetric Cholestasis with her second pregnancy and was induced at 39 weeks because of her existing medical conditions. She began using her TENS machine in the early stages of labour moving through programmes A and B and continued using it right to the end, when she needed some gas and air to help her push.

"I believe that because I had full control of my pain relief with MamaTENS, I was relaxed and as a consequence labour progressed as fast and as well as it did."

Julie had chosen to use a TENS machine because she had heard about it at her antenatal classes and had decided to give it a go.