University trained, over a decade of experience, specialising in fertility, pain management, women's health and emotional health problems.
Acupuncture in late pregnancy - what are the options?
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Although not widely known, acupuncture can be used effectively in late pregnancy to deal with problems such as breech presentation or induction at 40 weeks.
Breech babies
Between 29-32 weeks 15% of all babies will be in a breech position. This means that the baby is presenting with its buttock, knees or feet pointing down, essentially poised to come out bottom first. Only 3-4% of these presentations will stay in this position until labour.
As such breech presentation is considered normal in preterm pregnancies and is not generally medically diagnosed until the last few weeks of pregnancy. While the majority of breech babies turn spontaneously before birth, the longer a baby stays in the breech position with conditions becoming more cramped, the less likely it will be to turn of its own accord.
Scientific studies have shown that applying heat to an acupuncture point on the little toe can persuade a baby to turn! As strange as this sounds this is a technique has has been proven to work by lots of clinic trials.
Induction
Many women choose acupuncture to induce birth where there is a deadline given for medical intervention. Acupuncture helps calm the mother and pull all her physical and mental resources together to allow her body to let go. Even where induction is not successful many women having a second child report that they felt they were in a better place to deal with the artificial induction in the hospital.
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