For postnatal back pain

Back pain after having a baby. It is real. It does not have to be your baseline.

Drug-free. No systemic absorption. Fits into a feed-and-nap window. Safe for postnatal use.

Postnatal back pain is very common. The body spends nine months redistributing load around a shifting centre of gravity, then immediately takes on hours of carrying, feeding, and sleeping in whatever position gets the baby down. The back that was holding everything together is now doing that on no sleep.

The difficulty is that many standard pain management options are not appropriate while breastfeeding, and most require time that does not exist. Physio appointments need someone to watch the baby. Heat patches give temporary relief. Painkillers feel like the wrong answer.

TENS is drug-free. It works through the skin, not the bloodstream. There is no systemic absorption, no compounds passed through breastmilk. It takes under three minutes to apply, and a session lasts 20 minutes — a feed window, a nap window.

It is not a cure for postnatal back pain. But it is a consistent, repeatable way to reduce it to a manageable level, without adding another complication to an already full picture.

Important

TENS is not recommended during pregnancy. This page refers to postnatal use only — after delivery, once your midwife or GP has confirmed it is appropriate. Do not use on your abdomen, chest, directly over your spine, or on broken skin.

How it works

Why TENS is one of the few appropriate pain tools postnatally

TENS works by sending low-level electrical impulses through the skin via electrode pads. These impulses travel along sensory nerve fibres and interrupt the pain signal pathway before it reaches the brain — the gate control theory of pain. There is no systemic absorption. Nothing enters the bloodstream, and nothing passes through breastmilk.

For postnatal back pain, the lower back and upper back between the shoulder blades are the most common sites. Arca's dual-zone design means both areas can be targeted in a single session — relevant for the combination of lumbar load from carrying and thoracic tension from feeding positions.

The NHS lists TENS as a non-pharmacological option for pain management. The technology is the same used in labour pain management — many people will have encountered a TENS machine during birth. Postnatal use is different in application and placement, but the underlying mechanism is identical.

64%

Reduction in pain intensity in daily TENS users — Cochrane systematic review, 2021

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PLACEHOLDER: I was in too much pain to use the sling properly, which just made everything harder. Arca in the evening — when the baby naps — has been the first thing that has actually helped.

— PLACEHOLDER NAME, verified customer

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