The Mamas and Papas Tens

We've hired a tens machine for the labour: a "Mama Tens". It relieves pain by passing electrical currents through the muscles in the back. It looks a bit like one of those "lose fat with zero effort" machines you sometimes see advertised on TV late at night.

We've just walked through the procedure to use it. Hayley can't actually use it until the labour starts. I've heard that sometimes partners make themselves useful by working the tens machine. I can't honestly see how this works very well as the partner has no idea how intense the current from the machine feels. Maybe when the pain kicks in the last thing the woman wants to be doing is trying to remember what button to press and for how long.