Pregnancy Acupuncture: Nurturing Your Body & Easing Common Pregnancy Symptoms

Acupuncture can be used at all stages of pregnancy to help with a wide range of pregnancy-related symptoms, and to promote health and general wellbeing in pregnancy.

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  • Acupuncture is a “safe, evidence-based treatment that may be as effective as medication for nausea and vomiting during all stages of pregnancy, and can also be combined with medication for stronger relief” (3)

  • Acupuncture can ease stress and anxiety by promoting the release of your body’s own calming biochemicals

  • Acupuncture is a drug-free way of managing both pre-existing chronic pain during pregnancy, and pregnancy-related aches and pains - including back pain, pelvic girdle pain, headaches and migraines, jaw pain, & carpel tunnel syndrome

  • Acupuncture can be used to boost energy

  • Acupuncture can regulate the body's circadian rhythm and improve sleep quality

  • Acupuncture can help reduce the frequency and intensity of headaches and migraines during pregnancy

    • “acupuncture in combination with moxabustion may result in fewer births by Ceasarean section” (1) according to the Greentop Guidelines (written by RCOG - Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists)

    • The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) also recommends the use of moxibustion for breech presentation in pregnant women. The NICE guidelines are based on a thorough review of the available evidence, as well as consideration of the potential benefits, risks, and costs of the intervention

    • You can see this overview of research for more information on acupuncture & moxabustion for breech

  • Acupuncture can help move bowels, and can often reduce the severity of reflux during pregnancy

  • Tissue swelling in pregnancy can result in compression of the median nerve in the wrist - acupuncture can reduce symptoms such as pain, tingling, numbness and muscle weakness

  • Acupuncture can ease fluid retention

  • A study which looked at umbilical blood flow under ultrasound during acupuncture treatment found that acupuncture improves umbilical blood flow (which delivers oxygen and nutrients to your baby) (2)

Pregnancy Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a safe, evidence-based treatment that may be as effective as medication for managing nausea and vomiting during all stages of pregnancy, and can also be combined with medication for stronger relief (3)

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Prebirth and Postpartum Acupuncture: Optimising Your Body’s Beneficial Responses

Acupuncture can be used in the weeks leading up to birth, and as soon as you’re feeling up to coming in after birth. Postpartum (the first 6 weeks in particular) is considered a key time to support the body to recover from the demands of pregnancy and birth.

  • These weekly sessions are gentle & holistic treatments aimed at supporting your body holistically by easing stress/anxiety, relieving pain & tension, and supporting your body’s hormonal shifts.

    These pre-birth treatments are also suitable to use leading up to a planned Ceaserean.

    Prebirth acupuncture is aimed at supporting your body holistically by:

    • Easing pregnancy aches and pains, supporting sleep, boosting energy, calming stress - to put you in the best place going into labour

    • Supporting hormonal shifts & promoting your natural hormone cascade

    • Easing stress & anxiety (which can interfere with labour, as well as milk supply)

  • I can teach you how to use acupressure to support your body & manage pain during labor

  • Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can help with postpartum recovery by promoting tissue healing, easing pain, boosting mild supply, easing stress & anxiety, and boosting energy. The first 6 weeks is considered a key window in which to do this, but any treatment is of value.

  • Acupuncture can help with scar healing after a Ceasarean, as well as managing post-surgical pain

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Prebirth and Postpartum Acupuncture

References:

  1. External cephalic version and reducing the incidence of term breech presentation. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. 2017 Mar 16;124(7). doi:10.1111/1471-0528.14466

  2. Zeisler H, Eppel W, Husslein P, Bernaschek G, Deutinger J. Influence of acupuncture on Doppler ultrasound in pregnant women. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2001 Mar;17(3):229-32. doi: 10.1046/j.1469-0705.2001.00221.x. PMID: 11309173.

  3. 1. Jin B, Han Y, Jiang Y, Zhang J, Shen W, Zhang Y. Acupuncture for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. 2024 Oct;85:103079. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2024.103079