Acupuncture and Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a special time in a woman’s life. Many women experience pregnancy-related ailments such as fatigue, depression, morning sickness, heartburn, back pain and sciatica. Acupuncture has been practiced for centuries and is generally considered safe during pregnancy. It can be used to help with a range of pregnancy-related conditions, offering women an alternative to taking medication. It may also assist a woman in labour preparation and can be beneficial during her birth experience. Furthermore, acupuncture can help ease the transition into motherhood where once again, physical and emotional changes are immense and her energy on all levels has been depleted.

The following list details the conditions that acupuncture can help:

For pregnancy:

• Morning sickness
• Migraines
• Fatigue
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Heartburn
• Hemorrhoids
• Constipation
• Recurrent Miscarriage
• Pubic pain, back pain or sciatica
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Breech presentation

For labour:

• Boost energy
• Labour preparation
• Natural inductions
• Cervical ripening
• Shorten duration of labour
• Reduce the rate of caesarean section
• Pain and stress management
• Less need for synthetic oxytocin
• Reduce the requests for epidurals

For postpartum:

• Restore mothers’ energy levels
• Reduce stress, anxiety and depression
• Relieve back and body aches
• Stimulate milk production
• Ease mastitis pain
• Quicken recovery from a caesarean section

For infants

Acupuncture is safe to treat infants from birth.

• Poor sleep, nightmares
• Colic, constipation
• Vomiting, reflux
• Colds, flus and coughs
• Moodiness
• Skin problems
• Teething
• Ear infections