Increasing your chances for a natural birth
September 27, 2008
More and more pregnant women are interested in natural childbirth and exploring various ways to help them achieve their goal. Some are interested in natural childbirth because of its health benefits to the baby, others see birth as an important rite of passage they want to experience. Whatever your reasons, it’s important to remember that birth is a challenging experience where the unexpected can and often does happen.
Too many women go into birth without enough knowledge of natural tools for pain relief and find themselves overwhelmed at some point by the pain of contractions. Other women may encounter problems during labor like irregular contractions or a baby with a posterior position and think that medication is the only option. Still others may have had a previous bad birth experience, or may be considered high risk, and find themselves pressured by medical staff or family. If a natural birth is important to you, consider prebirth acupuncture to increase your chances of having the birthing experience that you want.
What is Prebirth Acupuncture?
The use of acupuncture during pregnancy and childbirth is thousands of years old. Prebirth Acupuncture is a relatively new phenomenon that grew out of modern research and has been further developed by Debra Betts, a pioneering acupuncturist who trains midwives in New Zealand. Initially midwives were interested in using acupuncture during labor to help with pain relief. What they found is that women receiving acupuncture in the last few weeks leading up to delivery had better outcomes during childbirth. As Betts writes in her research study on Prebirth Acupuncture,
Feedback from midwives using acupuncture has consistently been that within their practices, it reduces the length of time women spend in labor, especially women having their 1st birth, and there is a noticeable reduction in medical intervention, including induction of labor, use of epidural anesthesia, and cearean delivery (Betts 2006).
Research on Prebirth Acupuncture
In 2004 Betts completed an observational study involved 169 women receiving prebirth acupuncture. The acupuncture was performed by 14 midwives in the Wellington region of New Zealand. The midwives found that mean labor time was reduced. For women having their first labor, mean labor time was 9 hours with 59% of women delivering within 10 hours. Mean labor time was 4.7 hours for women having their second birth or more, with 60.5% delivering within 5 hours. Just as important, the study authors compared labor results of women receiving acupuncture to an audit group from the same region of New Zealand and observed the following results:
- 35% reduction in inductions (43% for women having their first birth)
- 31% reduction in epidural anesthesia
- 32% reduction in caesarean deliveries
- 9% increase in normal vaginal birth
Prebirth Care at Whole Family Healthcare
Our Prebirth Care helps you move to a place of greater balance and calm in the last weeks of your pregnancy, gives you the strength and endurance for labor and delivery, and helps ease the postpartum transition. The Prebirth Package consists of 4 acupuncture sessions, beginning in your 37th week of pregnancy. We develop a specialized treatment plan that addresses any health issues you are experiencing as well as including acupuncture points from the prebirth protocol developed by Betts. In addition, you will have a one-on-one session with Leah to learn acupressure points for pain relief during labor, as well as acupressure points and home herbal remedies to help you during your postpartum recovery.
**If you would like to read a copy of Betts study, please contact us.
Acupuncture and arthritis
September 8, 2008
For many Americans of a certain age, arthritis is simply a fact of life. Does it really have to be that way? In July 2006, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a German study on acupuncture and osteoarthritis of the knee demonstrating the effectiveness of acupuncture. Since then, many Americans have asked themselves, is acupuncture right for me?
A new perspective
What we in the West call arthritis is known as a “bi syndrome” in Chinese medicine. Bi means painful obstruction. When qi is obstructed instead of flowing smoothly through the body, there is pain. There are several types of bi categorized by their symptoms, but they all tend to settle in the joints. For example, people whose symptoms tend to be worse in damp weather have “damp bi”. People who have swollen, red joints (more common in rheumatoid arthritis) have “hot bi”. Bi syndromes include osteoarthritis as well as rheumatoid arthritis, gout and sciatica.
Root and Branch
In Chinese medicine we often speak of root and branch treatments. For arthritis, a branch treatment would consist of several needles in and around the affected joints, as well as other major points along the channels that pass through the joint. The point of this treatment would be to open the channels and smooth the flow of qi and blood to alleviate pain.
Whenever possible, treatment should try to address the root of the problem as well its branch. What underlying disharmonies have allowed this obstruction to settle in and linger? Some might say the underlying disharmony is simply the aging process, and they would be correct to a certain degree because as we age our body tends to become more unbalanced. However, these disharmonies vary according to a person’s constitutional tendencies and his or her lifestyle choices. It’s here that one really begins to appreciate the power of Chinese medicine. Rather than simply treat the pain, we treat the individual, strengthening his body to make the recurrence of pain less likely.
Fountain of Youth?
It would be misleading for anyone to claim that acupuncture can completely reverse the effects of aging. However, it is responsible to state that most people suffering from osteoarthritis can have significant improvement in joint mobility and comfort, and that these improvements last for several months to years. Is acupuncture right for you? Schedule an appointment today.
Dealing with afterpains
September 8, 2008
Afterpains are cramps that occur in the first few days following childbirth. They are a result of the uterus shrinking back to its normal size. While these are usually mild for first-time moms, they tend to get worse with each successive pregnancy and can be quite intense.
Acupressure on Spleen 6
Pressure on the acupoint Spleen 6 can greatly reduce the pain from these cramps, with some women calling the results “magical”. Spleen 6 is located 4 finger-breadths above the medial malleolus (the bony prominence on the inside of your ankle), just off the shin bone. Feel for the most tender spot in this area.
Acupressure on Spleen 6
To use this point, apply pressure at Spleen 6 every time you begin breastfeeding. The best way to accomplish this to have your support person apply strong pressure to both legs as you begin nursing. If this is not possible, you can do the acupressure yourself for 1-3 minutes just before you begin nursing.
Tea for Afterpains
Bring 1 cup of water to boil. Add 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar and mix. Let cool slightly and drink as tea.
This tea is easy to make. For women in their second pregnancy, consider taking some brown sugar with you to the hospital. Drink this tea any time you are experiencing afterpains. Try drinking it preventively, for example, before you begin breastfeeding.
Acupuncture may ease chronic headaches
September 5, 2008
Reuters August 26, 2008
Acupuncture may bring some added pain relief to people with chronic headaches, a new study suggests.
The study, the largest to date on using acupuncture to ease headaches, adds to a conflicting body of evidence: Some research has suggested that adding acupuncture to standard headache medication brings patients additional pain relief; other studies, however, have found that “sham” acupuncture — using blunted needles that do not pierce the skin — is as effective as the real thing.
Those latter studies call into question the true effectiveness of acupuncture.
For the current study, published in the journal Cephalalgia, German researchers followed more than 15,000 adults with chronic headaches; all had been suffering from either migraine or tension-type headaches at least twice a month for 1 year or more.
Of these patients, nearly 3,200 agreed to be randomly assigned to either have acupuncture added to their regular therapy or to stay with their usual care alone. The rest of the patients began on acupuncture treatment.
All of the acupuncture patients received up to 15 sessions over 3 months, and all study patients were reassessed after 6 months.
In the end, the study found, acupuncture patients reported greater pain improvements than those who stayed with their usual care only. At the outset, they reported an average of 8.4 headache days over 3 months; that dropped to 4.7 by the study’s end.
In the usual care only group, the average number of headache days remained virtually the same: 8.1 days initially, and 7.5 days at the end of the study.
“Acupuncture plus routine care in patients with headache was associated with marked clinical improvements compared with routine care alone,” write the researchers, led by Dr. Stefan N. Willich of Charite University Medical Center in Berlin.
To read more, click here.
Acupuncture for PCOS
September 5, 2008
Emaxhealth.com September 3, 2008
Getting pregnant with her first child was difficult, but when Rebecca Killmeyer of Charlottesville, Va. experienced a miscarriage during her second pregnancy, she wasn’t sure if she would ever have another baby. When she decided to enter a study testing the impact of acupuncture on women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) at the University of Virginia Health System, she came out with a miracle.
“To our great surprise we were blessed with a third pregnancy during the PCOS study,” said Killmeyer. “I’m absolutely certain the acupuncture treatments helped me ovulate regularly, which allowed me to becomepregnant.”
Lisa Pastore, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UVA Health System and principle researcher of the study, was hoping for results like this. Her goal has been to help women with PCOS have regular menstrual cycles. PCOS causes a hormonal imbalance, interfering with ovulation and ultimately, fertility. With several women in the study reporting pregnancies, Pastore believes that acupuncture could be an important alternative, non-drug therapy for women with this disorder.
To read more, click here.