Acupuncture in Pregnancy & Childbirth
Acupuncture is an Ideal form of treatment in pregnancy as this therapy offers women drug-free relief for a multitude of problems that can arise. Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine may help with symptoms often regarded as part of a normal pregnancy, for example nausea and vomiting (morning sickness) and pregnancy related muscle-skeletal complaints.
Pre-birth Acupuncture
Treatment normally starts from 36 weeks and aims at helping to encourage optimal fetal positioning and to ‘ripen the cervix’ and prepare the body for birth. Research shows that women who receive pre-birth acupuncture from 36 weeks are less likely to go to far overdue and spend far less time in labor as the contractions are more effective and efficient.
Labor Inductions
Acupuncture Inductions are aimed at using points known for their function of stimulating contractions of the uterus by helping the body to release the natural birthing hormone ‘oxytocin’. Medical inductions can often result in a higher chance of further interventions due to pushing the body into contractions when the appropriate hormones have not yet been released by the body.
Pain Relief in Labor
At Bayside Acupuncture Clinic we also offer the teaching of acupressure to a women’s partner or support person. Men can often feel lost with what to do and work better with direction.
Having knowledge of what points they can do to help pain, contractions, emotions such as fear and the pushing phase can make a great difference to reduce the chances of prolonged or difficult labor and the levels of pain experienced during labor. Medical interventions such as vacuum or suction delivery, forceps delivery and caesarean sections are greatly reduced.
Post-Natal Treatment
There are very real benefits in using Chinese Medicine during a pregnancy and during the postnatal period to prevent disharmonies from developing. Women in the post-natal periods are very prone to suffering deficiencies of qi, blood and yin. Deficiencies can cause problems such as post natal depression, persistent uterine bleeding and feeding difficulties or insufficient lactation.
A one- off treatment called “mother warming” given around day 5 post-birth, is a moxa technique to warm the women’s abdomen and lower back area and is used to energise women and aid in their recovery. This is then followed by 30 days of tonification (sometimes 100 days in needed), seen as necessary to rebuild the qi and blood lost through pregnancy and childbirth. If a woman is breastfeeding, taking Chinese herbs to tonify qi and blood throughout this period is encouraged.