by
Ken L. Smith
Breast Health Facilitator for ACS
Updated April 2017
Getting lactation started without
the benefit of a recent pregnancy is difficult,
in that it requires your actively stimulating
and “expressing” your breasts for ten to fifteen
minutes each, no sooner than every 3-4 hours,
throughout the 24-hour day. This expressing can
be either suckling by a partner’s mouth (most
effective of all methods), manual expression
with your or your partner’s hands (second most
effective), or pumping with a breast pump (least
effective of the three methods). If your work
schedule keeps you from finding the time to
express your breasts during the day by any of
these techniques, at the proper time, your
breasts will be slower in responding and it will
require a longer time to lactate.
A fourth method of breast
expression is the use of a TENS Unit, which
stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve
Stimulation (which basically means the unit
stimulates your breast and nipple nerves through
the skin of your breasts). It is a medical
device that produces a very low electrical
micro-current that flows from one electrode
(pad) of each channel on the TENS unit to the
other electrode of the same channel. Some TENS
Units have only two electrodes (single channel)
while others may have four electrodes (two pairs
– two channels) or three or four channels. At
least two channels would be a better choice
because it could be applied to both breasts and
used on both breasts simultaneously. These
electrodes are placed a small distance apart on
your breast areola, on opposite sides of each
nipple. The TENS unit relies on the surface of
your skin as the conductor of that electrical
current, to complete a tiny circuit. You often
cannot feel that electrical current… and can
only feel your nerves reacting to it.
The original purpose of using the
TENS Unit is to stimulate the nerves and muscles
in your body to “hide” pain such as lower back
pain, etc. In this case, it is used to stimulate
the nerves of your breast... mostly nerves in
your nipple area, which promote the release of
prolactin by your Pituitary Gland (in your
brain). That induces growth and development of
acini (milk-producing) tissues in your breasts
and leads to lactation.
Everyone should be concerned
about the effects that any electrical device has
on their heart. If you
are wearing a pacemaker, you should not use a
TENS Unit without discussing it with your doctor
first. The following is what Dr. Jim
Bowman says about the safe use of a TENS Unit on
your breasts:
“The amperage of the current is
what is critical in triggering heart
arrhythmias. TENS units have an extremely small
micro amperage current and it would be very
unlikely for one to trigger an arrhythmia. Some
of them can run for a week on a watch battery.
TENS units generate a high frequency alternating
waveform. It tends to be very non-penetrating,
running superficially in the skin and it
disperses in the tissues rapidly. It is quite
effective in triggering nerve endings.
Depolarizing the heart would not be very likely
with this high frequency. Defibrillators use
either a direct current or a low frequency
alternating sine wave current. They are of
course, very effective at depolarizing the
heart. If you have an implanted pacemaker or
defibrillator do not use a TENS unit in this
fashion. Each channel of a TENS unit
connects to two pads. The current travels
between these pads. It would be best to use 2
pads (one channel) on each breast rather than
having one pad on each breast with the current
traveling through the chest between the breasts.
Using two channels should be very safe. “ (personal
communication with Dr. Bowman)
To use the TENS unit when you are
at work or shopping, the idea is for the pads to
be attached to your breasts before you get
dressed. They can be used inside your bra (if
you wear one) or simply worn under your outer
clothing. The control unit can slip into your
bra between your breasts, hang from a cord
around your neck, clip to your belt or slip into
your pocket. It makes no vibrations or noise,
and can be running while you are working at your
desk, in a board meeting, or having lunch with
your friends. You merely turn it on when you
want it to function and turn it off when you are
finished with it.
The intent of using this unit is
not to replace your partner’s oral expression or
your manual expression of your breasts, or your
pumping, but to substitute in their place when
you are not able to take time away from work to
suckle, express or pump. More than that,
however, it can be used in between the scheduled
suckling, expressing or pumping sessions, for
about ten minutes every two hours.
When you place the TENS Unit on
your breasts, use the two wires from one channel
of the TENS unit on one breast. The electrodes
(pads) will be marked in some way, indicating
that one electrode is a "+" electrode and the
other is a "-" electrode. It is OK if the pads
are not marked. Just do not intermix the wires
from two different channels … be certain that
both wires from each channel go to a single
breast. Place the “+” and the “-“ electrodes of
the second channel on your other breast. Examine
the image below of a lovely client that offered
her image as a demonstration photo. Notice there
are two channels, each channel having a “+” pad
and a “-“ pad.
Channel One
Channel Two
.
The pads on the ends of each wire
should be placed one on each side of each
nipple, about one inch from your nipple. Looking
in the mirror, the four pads and your two
nipples should all be lined up in a single row:
(+ Pad) __ (L. nipple) __(- Pad) __ Cleavage __
(- Pad) __ (R. nipple) __(+ Pad).
The image above shows what this is like.
Your TENS unit may have several
settings that you can adjust. Some suggestions
might be:
1. Wave
Form: Choose the one that indicates it is for
massaging.
2. Amplitude:
This basically means the volume or the current.
Adjust it to a low setting. It should give you a
pleasant "tingling" in your nipples or areolae.
3. Pulse
Width: This basically means how long each pulse
lasts. Considering the 'pulse' of a baby's
suction is possibly half a second, I would try
the longest pulse, or 250 us.
4. Frequency:
This should be the same as a baby that is
sucking. I would set it at about 70.
There are two different uses of
the TENS unit:
-
Turn on the TENS Unit for ten
to fifteen minutes every two hours. Any more
time than that will not produce any more
prolactin and prove to be ineffective. OR...
-
You do need to continue your
schedule for the oral or manual expressing
or pumping of your breasts whenever you can.
But when you are not able to suckle,
manually express, or pump… when you are
where you cannot do your regular session,
you can use the TENS unit for the full time
you would normally suckle, express, or pump.
Once you start producing milk,
you usually cannot use the TENS unit to replace
your regular sessions as it will make your
milk run and wet your blouse. If you are where
you can catch your milk that is produced, you
can use the TENS to stimulate your breasts if
you want to. However, remember that if your milk
is not expressed from your breasts, your body
assumes that you do not need the milk and your
breasts start to become “weaned”… you will
actually work backwards and lose what you have
built up.
If you do use a TENS Unit, please
consider sharing your knowledge of your
progress. Your experience will be very helpful
for others that are waiting to hear about
others’ results.
If you are interested in using a
TENS, there are a couple of units listed below
that seem to fulfill the needs of other
‘clients’ who are seeking to stimulate
lactation. Normally the smaller it is the less
obvious it is, and less noticeable. If you click
on one that is listed on this website, it will
link you directly to Amazon.com, and you can
read more about it or browse and look at their
other many selections. If you purchase it (or
anything else) from Amazon while you are there,
the price, quick delivery, and warrantee that
Amazon.com is famous for will still be with you,
but Amazon will actually award BreastNotes.com a
couple percent for a “finder’s fee” to help
support the website, and you will cause
Amazon.com to support better breast health for
women worldwide.
Do not hesitate to contact me if
you have any questions.
Ken
Ken L. Smith, Breast Health
Facilitator for the ACS
Owner and webmaster of
www.BreastNotes.com
BreastCare@comcast.net
