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Acupuncture and Later Pregnancy & Birth Preparation
S
o you’re counting down the months (or even weeks or days) till you can meet the newest member of your family. This time should be all about nesting and preparing, but that’s hard to do if you are feeling exhausted by some of the conditions that can arise in late pregnancy. When these problems are severe, they can really detract from the experience of being pregnant. Issues that tend to flare up at this stage of the pregnancy include:
- Swollen ankles, fingers and wrists (can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome)
- Iron-deficiency anaemia
- Indigestion, acid reflux
- Varicose veins
- Haemorrhoids
- Back pain, sciatica, as baby’s head presses on the nerves exiting the spinal column
- Pubic symphysitis
- Insomnia
Easing late pregnancy complaints with Acupuncture.
Thankfully, most of these issues tend to respond well to Acupuncture. You’ve probably already heard of the benefits of Acupuncture in back pain and sciatica, as well as aches and pains like carpal tunnel syndrome. I also use specific Acupuncture points to reduce water retention and aid fluid metabolism, improve indigestion, and ease the discomfort associated with swollen veins and haemorrhoids. Other points can help you sleep or to help nourish the blood (to combat anaemia). These are combined with points selected for your individual constitution and any other symptoms you might be experiencing. The overall result is a very relaxing experience that should help settle your discomfort and support you as your pregnancy advances.
I find that with some of these conditions, especially pubic symphysitis, but also back pain and sciatica, the best results are achieved with a combination of Acupuncture and Chiropractic.
Other issues in late pregnancy that are less common include:
- Breech baby (head-up rather than the normal head-down position), and other positions not ideal for labour, such as posterior.
- High blood pressure (pregnancy-induced hypertension or pre-eclampsia),
- High blood sugar levels (gestational diabetes)
- Complications of pregnancy like a low-lying placenta (placenta praevia).
Let’s look at how Acupuncture can help these complications.
Breech and other positions not ideal for labour.
If your baby is in breech position, its bottom or feet would be delivered first if you went into labour. Some obstetricians are confident in delivering breech babies. But because complications can occur, most will attempt to physically turn the baby (external cephalic version) if this is possible. If it doesn’t work, the usual advice is to have a Caesarean section, but this is not without its risks and complications. Apart from issues with labour, a prolonged period in some types of breech position can also lead to problems with baby’s hips after birth.
Luckily, there is an alternative. At around 33-34 weeks, Acupuncturists use a specific point on the big toe, which is not needled but instead heated with moxa (a processed form of the herb Artemisia or Mugwort). You continue this treatment at home for 1-2 weeks. The moxibustion stimulates fetal movement, encouraging the baby to move itself into the normal head-down position. This form of treatment has been evaluated by research — it led to the baby turning in about 75% of cases (as a comparison, less than 50% of babies turned by themselves in women who did not have moxibustion treatment). No harmful effects were noted. There is another advantage of this approach. Because we are intervening relatively early in the pregnancy (compared with an external cephalic version at 37-38 weeks), if the moxibustion is successful, the baby is in the breech position for a shorter period, so we’d anticipate less chance of damage to the hips.
The best position for the baby to be born in is head-down, with the chin tucked right down into the chest, and in the head in the anterior position. This means that the back of baby’s head is directly under your pubic bone. This makes for a smoother birth. It is also more efficient, meaning you won’t get as tired during labour because the baby is already lined up correctly. Some babies don’t naturally adopt this position, but instead have their heads the other way up so that their forehead is directly below your pubic bone. This can lead to a longer, more tiring labour, with a lot of back pain, as the baby rotates into the anterior position (this does not always happen – the baby can be born in the posterior position, but this is not common).
We use a similar moxibustion technique if the baby is posterior, coupled with exercises to try and get gravity to work in your favour in encouraging baby to turn anterior.
In the following conditions, acupuncturists working with pregnant women have observed improvement in response to Acupuncture. However, little research has been done to back this up.
High blood pressure.
Your midwife or Obstetrician will be keeping a close eye on your blood pressure, because occasionally pregnant women develop a condition where the blood pressure rises out of control (and other problems develop). This is called pre-eclampsia and poses risks to the health of yourself and the baby.
While women with severe pre-eclampsia need to be hospitalised for monitoring and treatment, Acupuncture can be useful if there is just a mild increase in blood pressure. It can also help reduce the water retention that can also happen with this condition. Generally, the sooner treatment begins the more likely it is to have results. Of course, ongoing monitoring by your obstetric team is very important.
Gestational diabetes.
It’s normal for blood sugar (glucose) levels to rise slightly in pregnancy, but in some women this happens to the extent that diabetes develops. When severe, this can have complications. The concept of diabetes was recognised by the ancient Chinese, and several Acupuncture points have been proven to promote glucose metabolism and pancreatic function. By using these points, plus others for general wellbeing and the stage of pregnancy, we hope to help normalise glucose levels.
Low-lying placenta.
If your placenta is too low in the uterus, this can cause problems with bleeding later in pregnancy. In severe cases, a vaginal birth is not possible as the placenta obstructs the cervix. This condition often resolves by itself as the uterus enlarges and the placenta naturally rises away from the cervix. But in cases where it does not, we can add in Acupuncture points that have a lifting action according to Chinese Medical theory.
Pre-birth treatment – preparing for labour.
So you’re in the final weeks and no doubt you’ll be thinking about how to ease your passage through labour. Birth preparation Acupuncture is becoming increasingly popular since research has shown its effectiveness. One New Zealand study found that, overall, women who had birth preparation Acupuncture were 35% less likely to need their labour to be medically induced (43% less likely for women having their first baby). Women having these treatments also had a 31% reduction in epidural use.
I prefer to do weekly treatments from about 35 weeks, as the best effects are achieved when you have 4 treatments or more. In these sessions, we gently prepare your body for labour with specific points that act on the cervix and uterus. We also cover acupressure techniques for you or your support person to use during labour that can help you deal with the contractions and help the cervix dilate.
Inducing labour.
There’s no doubt that it’s best for your body to go into labour by itself. We don’t really understand the interplay between the mother and baby that sets off labour, and it’s likely to be complex and involve a cascade of factors. But sometimes, when the pregnancy goes more than a week – 10 days over the due date, then it’s wise to start weighing up the risks and working out a plan of action. In these cases, or when the Obstetrician wants to induce labour for medical reasons, Acupuncture can be very useful in kick-starting the process and potentially avoiding a medical induction. Feedback from midwives in New Zealand who started using Acupuncture in inductions has generally been positive, although the research is certainly not conclusive. In these circumstances, we stimulate points traditionally used to bring on labour, and do several treatments close together, ideally every couple of days.
So enjoy the last months and weeks of your pregnancy, and don’t forget that Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can be great after the birth for promoting healing and dealing with breastfeeding issues like mastitis.
Acupuncture in Pregnancy
Acupuncture is very useful in pregnancy, from alleviating exhaustion and morning sickness in the early weeks to bringing relief from back pain, haemorrhoids and indigestion later in pregnancy. It can even help a breech baby turn head down!
As you approach your due date (from about 35 weeks), we recommend a weekly program of “pre-birth” acupuncture to prepare for labour. Women who have this sort of acupuncture program are less likely to need interventions during labour than those who don’t.
Here are some of the pregnancy-related issues our Acupuncturists use Acupuncture to help with:
- Morning sickness
- Tiredness/exhaustion
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Swollen ankles and fingers
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Indigestion, acid reflux
- Pelvic pain
- Sciatica and low back pain
- Breech baby and other malpositions
- High blood pressure
- Induction of labour (in some circumstances)
Plus the benefits of Acupuncture extend to helping with recovery from labour, promoting the flow of breast milk and treating mastitis.
Chinese herbal medicine is also helpful during pregnancy, with several thousands of years of safe use in pregnant women
Our Acupuncturists are experienced in working with women at all stages of pregnancy and in the post-birth period. Health-fund rebates are available for Acupuncture treatments.
Chiropractic and Pregnancy
Your body goes through many changes during pregnancy, and it is amazing at how well it adapts and accommodates for the increasing size of the baby, and then in preparation for the birthing process. Chiropractic can be helpful in several ways as your body goes through these changes.
As the baby grows your body is having to carry more weight which will put some strain on your body especially the lower back. With the increased size of the baby naturally your stomach enlarges which causes your centre of gravity to a more forward position. Then as the baby gets even larger it will often push on different structures of your body, this will commonly affect your ribs, particularly at the front, as they try to accommodate the baby. Then, close to the end of the pregnancy ligaments begin to loosen in preparation for the birth, and this can make the pelvis feel loose and unstable.
All these factors can and often do create some aches and pains, particularly if you have a history of back pain, but they are all things that can be gently treated with Chiropractic. Chiropractic helps by allowing the pelvis, back and ribs to remain mobile, which assists it in smoothly adapting through the process of those changes. as stable as possible. This helps to minimise any aches and pains that occur in this time, and keeps the muscles relaxed and loose. By keeping these joints moving well during pregnancy will make it easier for you to keep active and exercising which can help lead to having an easier labor.
Chiropractic can also help post pregnancy. After giving birth some women can feel very unstable in the pelvis, or they may have a separation and inflammation of the pubic bones. Then breastfeeding and even carrying a baby can often result in upper back and shoulder pain and stiffness. Chiropractic care is very effective in helping your body cope with these new postures and tasks, and generally getting your body back to its healthy and balanced state.
Naturopathic approach to alleviating morning sickness in pregnancy
Morning sickness is the acute, transient nausea associated with pregnancy. ‘Morning sickness’ is a misnomer – it may occur at any time of the day, though it most commonly occurs soon after waking. It is thought to be caused by increased levels of oestrogen being produced by the placenta and/or by increased levels of human chorionic gonadotropin. Morning sickness usually starts in the first month of the pregnancy, peaking in the 6th week, and continuing until the 16th week. For 50% of all sufferers, it ends by the 16th week of pregnancy. For the other half, it may take up to another month to get relief but some women will have morning sickness off and on for their entire pregnancy.
Risk factors
Some women suffer terribly from morning sickness, while others sail through with minimum nausea. The following factors are thought to play a part in morning sickness:
- An increase in the circulating level of the hormone oestrogen. Oestrogen levels may increase by up to a hundredfold during pregnancy.
- An increase in human chorionic gonadotropin.
- Low blood sugar during pregnancy.
- An increase in progesterone relaxes the muscles in the uterus, which prevents early childbirth, but may also relax the stomach and intestines, leading to nausea.
- Intake of alcohol, sugar, oils and meat, which have been postulated to cause a natural trigger of morning sickness in the body as a way of discouraging ingestion of less healthy foods.
Signs and Symptoms
Common signs and symptoms of morning sickness include
- Nausea, vomiting
- Retching, belching, vomiting of sour fluid
- Poor digestion with abdominal distension exacerbated by eating
- Poor appetite
- Fatigue—especially after meals
Diet and Lifestyle tips to help alleviate morning sickness
- Pregnant women are making the greatest nutritional investment of their lives. It is important to ensure adequate nutritional intake by eating a diet based on fresh, organic wholefoods, incorporating protein, fruit, vegetables, good fats and high fibre foods.
- Avoid an empty stomach. Eating small regular meals helps to maintain energy levels and may prevent morning sickness.
- Don’t overeat – large meals can drain energy. Instead of eating three big meals per day, try six mini-meals to spread your kilojoule intake more evenly. This will result in more constant blood sugar and insulin levels.
- Ginger, in capsules, tea, ginger ale or ginger beer.
- Peppermint leaf tea, can help relieve nausea and morning sickness or gas.
- Raspberry leaf tea, also relieves nausea, however is recommended after the first trimester only.
- Fulfil food cravings.
- Drink plenty of water – a dehydrated body functions less efficiently.
- Eat iron rich foods – make sure diet includes iron rich foods such as lean red meat.
- Ensure adequate, regular, and consistent amounts of sleep each night.
- Effective relaxation is essential – try techniques such as yoga or meditation.
- Maintaining a reasonable work and personal schedule is important.
- Address chronic pain and/or depression.
- Cut down caffeine.
- Some women find that aromatherapy can help – with essential oils of lemon, lime, orange and peppermint (a few drops in a vaporiser) can ease nausea.
Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine in Pregnancy
Part 1 – Early pregnancy
Congratulations, you’re pregnant! While you might be thrilled to bits, you might not yet be experiencing that “glow” everyone talks about. In fact you might be feeling distinctly unglowing! Some women breeze through this stage of pregnancy but many find their energy is at rock bottom and they experience anything from “morning sickness” to all-day queasiness to outright nausea and vomiting. You may also feel anxious about the weeks and months to come, especially if you’ve previously had fertility struggles or a miscarriage.
The good news is that acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can help with many of these conditions.
You might be wondering if acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine are safe in pregnancy. The answer is a resounding “Yes”, as long as given by a qualified practitioner who has been trained in the points and herbs to use during pregnancy and those to avoid.
Quell nausea naturally
Some researchers think that the heightened sense of smell and aversion to anything but the blandest of food could be part of an evolutionary mechanism to protect the embryo from food poisoning. Perhaps pregnancy hormones boost our sense of smell to protect us from consuming food that has gone off or would be harmful in another way. This certainly seems to make sense given that we did not have fridges for most of our evolutionary history!
Some women experience disabling nausea to the point where they can barely get out of bed and their diet becomes very restricted. If you are finding it hard to cope with morning sickness, acupuncture can be very useful. Unfortunately this has not yet been well proven by medical research. However, one study looked at 88 women with morning sickness who received either acupuncture plus acupressure or medication plus vitamin B12. The women who had acupuncture/acupressure had similar relief to those who took medication. Although it took longer to gain this improvement, the acupuncture group were actually better able to function in everyday life than those who took the drugs.
Boost your energy levels
Feeling extremely tired in early pregnancy may be another evolutionary adaptation, as it encourages us to rest during this time. That being said, if you are completely wiped out and unable to get out of bed, then treatment is a good idea.
I find acupuncture very helpful in gently boosting energy levels in early pregnancy. Treatments concentrate on boosting energy production by working on specific meridians (energy pathways) and organs, depending on your symptoms, pulse and tongue pattern. In this way, treatments are tailored to suit your individual circumstances. As well as very gentle needling, we warm key points on the body by applying a herb (moxibustion).
Calm your mind
Acupuncture is fantastic for calming the mind and harmonizing the emotions. Many women find themselves feeling anxious at the change in their circumstances and wondering how they will cope with pregnancy, birth or being a mum. Acupuncture treatments, as well as talking it over with a trusted friend, or if necessary, a counsellor, can really help. It can also help you sleep better at a time when hormonal changes may be interfering with your night’s rest.
Protecting the pregnancy
One of the things you may be concerned about is miscarriage, which is something no-one wants to experience. Most miscarriages are caused by chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo, and cannot be avoided. However, other causes do occur, where something seems to go wrong in the implantation process. So, particularly if you have had more than one miscarriage, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine may be of benefit. We theorize that these therapies counteract an over-active immune system or aid implantation in another way. This is certainly borne out by studies on animals. There has not been much research done on this in humans, but one study of 250 women who had become pregnant after IVF showed that those who took a Chinese herbal formula as well as a standard medication (progesterone) to support the pregnancy had a significantly lower miscarriage rate (13% miscarried) than those who just took the progesterone (23% miscarried).
Several acupuncture points are also used to reduce the chance of miscarriage. I recommend that women who’ve had previous miscarriages, especially if a chromosomal cause has been ruled out, have acupuncture weekly from conception (preferably before, as part of a pre-conception program) until about 12 weeks. Herbs would also be useful in this situation.
If you do experience bleeding in pregnancy, as alarming as it seems, remember that reasons other than miscarriage are often found, such as bleeding from the implantation site and hormonal changes affecting the cervix. Get checked out medically (see your obstetrician or ask your GP for a referral to your hospital’s Early Pregnancy Unit) and also see your acupuncturist as soon as you can, and hopefully your mind can be put at rest.
Moving past the first trimester
Once they get past the first 13 weeks, many women find they start to feel much better, with energy levels picking up and nausea subsiding. This is when the glow starts! See next month’s newsletter for more about how acupuncture can help later in pregnancy.
More information?
For more information or to make an appointment to see Toby or Louise, our Acupuncturists, call 9904-1333 or contact us here: Contact.
NET and Pregnancy
We have all heard the stories of couples trying to have babies for years and years without any luck. Often times these couples try with undying focus and commitment. Making sure that ovulation is timed to the hour, that their diets are organic, in bed by 9pm every night and that they swallow so many supplements they almost rattle. And then after several years of fruitless trying, disappointed and sad, they take a break from trying, go on holidays, and then surprisingly realise they are pregnant once they return from their trip.
There’s nothing new about this story, in fact its been told and heard so many times its probably a good idea to look as what is actually going on there. How is it that for many couples that struggle to fall pregnant, all the effort, planning and commitment in the world brings no results, but when they let it all go and focus on something else, a baby is on the way?
Enter the theories of the Quantum world. In recent decades the field of Quantum physics has taught us a lot about how our intentions and thoughts impact the cellular and biological structure of our bodies. We have learnt that the smaller the biological structure, the more easily our thoughts, emotions and intentions influence it. For example, we know that when we feel happy, neurotransmitters are created and up taken in the brain. Said another way, our happiness biologically creates chemicals. Just like when we feel fear, our body creates a reaction whereby adrenalin is produced. So our fear is a creative process also. On some level, all our thoughts, emotions and beliefs are creative within our biology.
So, how does this relate to pregnancy? If our beliefs, thoughts and emotions can create hormones and neurotransmitters and alter cellular structures in our body, is it possible that they can also influence ones ability to fall pregnant or not? N.E.T practitioners answer with a resounding YES!
A woman’s beliefs and emotions, conscious or unconscious, seem to have a powerful relationship to challenges with falling pregnant. The simplest example of this is when a woman becomes stressed, sometimes her reproductive cycle changes, and under high stress, the menstrual cycle can even stop.
Beyond common stress, there are more subtle emotional influences that don’t necessarily stop the menstrual cycle but can inhibit and stop one becoming pregnant. With NET the practitioner uses muscle testing as a diagnostic tool to discover what emotions are blocked within the system, and where they are stored within the body. Once these are cleared the reproductive system can regulate normally once again.
Some common examples of the typical kinds of emotions that have blocked the reproductive system are;
- Being unconsciously fearful that a newborn will mean the end of their much-revered career.
- Unconsciously feeling that one will not be a “good enough” mother.
- Having been raised by parents that were abusive, fearing that the cycle will continue.
- Fearing not knowing how to attend to a baby due to not having been attended to well when they were a baby also.
- Fearing that there will not be enough space, time or support (for mother or child) if one was to fall pregnant.
- Unconsciously buying into the “rules” of the family that the older sister must give birth before I can fall pregnant.
- A belief that my child will be somehow different if I fall pregnant through IVF.
These memories, beliefs and emotions are stored in the body at a cellular level and bind the body into biological structures that inhibit and stop reproduction. Typically these emotions will also enhance or inhibit hormone levels within the body, which we know to be a key factor in successful pregnancy. Once the emotions and beliefs are discovered and released as a cellular level, their influence on hormones is also released, and their hold over the reproductive system is removed.
Chiropractics role in fertility.
Most people think of seeing a Chiropractor for body pains and headaches, but Chiropractic care does have an impact on the whole body, including organ systems. In that way it does have a small role in helping with infertility, but is best used as an adjunct to other treatments such as Acupuncture or Naturopathy.
The principle of Chiropractic is to balance the physical body and allow it to function as it is designed to. This will in turn reduce any tension in the muscles, and pressure on the joints and spinal discs, and hence reduce pain. It also has the effect of reducing any pressure on the nerves. If the nervous system is free of pressure it is also able to function as normally as possible, hence the body’s organ systems will receive the optimal nerve supply and hence function optimally also. In this way Chiropractic can have an impact on systems including digestion, circulation and fertility.
The nerves that originate from the lumbar and sacral spine, ie the lower back and pelvis, supply the reproductive system, so if there is some imbalance to these structures there may be interference to how well the reproductive system works and hence possibly affect fertility.
Another way a Chiropractor may help when it comes to fertility, is with the Neuro Emotional Technique (NET), described in our June newsletter. Sometimes we can have fears that hold us back in life, and these fears and emotions can be strong enough to affect our body and how well it functions. When it comes to fertility, pregnancy and parenthood, there are many emotions that can come up, and potentially impact on our fertility (either by increasing stress levels or by affecting hormone levels). These can include fear of being pregnant or the birth, or self esteem issues around being a good parent. Commonly it can also bring up concerns of how a baby will impact your career, social life, relationship with your partner to name just a few. NET can be a great tool to allow you to be free those emotional blocks and hence function more optimally.
Once you fall pregnant, then Chiropractic can be of a great benefit in reducing any discomfort that can come about due to all the changes your body will be going through. See next month newsletter article, Chiropractic and Pregnancy.