Pregnancy Care at The Helix Clinic
Acupuncture treatment is a wonderful way to maintain optimal health during your pregnancy as it is completely natural and is able to target all of the common complaints that can arise at different stages. It can help with problems such as morning sickness in the first trimester, fatigue and emotional ups and downs, and the inevitable back pain and oedema in the final trimester. It can even help to induce your birth naturally if you go beyond your due date, or turn the baby in the case of a breech presentation.
After you have your newborn baby, treatment will help to restore your energy back to its normal levels, ready for the new and exciting challenges of motherhood!
Morning Sickness
Morning sickness often starts early in pregnancy, and is a very common complaint. Chinese medicine often views morning sickness as an imbalance between the liver and the stomach/spleen/pancreas or an excess of heat in the stomach. In any case it is usually treated very effectively with acupuncture. One point that is often used for any kind of nausea can be found on the inside of the wrist. Travel sickness wristbands are designed to stimulate this acupuncture point, and can help to control your morning sickness in addition to treatments. Often though, the diagrams that come with the wrist bands are less than clear, so we would be happy to show you exactly where the correct point is.
Birth Induction
Acupuncture can be used to help induce a baby naturally if a mother is more than a few days beyond her due date. When acupuncturists are training, they are told about a set of points that should not be used on a pregnant woman (the so-called forbidden points). The reason that these points shouldn't be used is that they can help to induce a birth (which should obviously only be done at the correct time). Treatment for birth induction will make use of these points, and they can help to start the contractions. Many mothers who have gone over their due date prefer to try a natural approach before going for any kind of chemical induction, especially if they have spent months planning for a natural birth at home.
Breech Presentation
One of the more remarkable treatments in Chinese medicine is the treatment used to help turn a baby in the womb just before birth. The treatment involves the use of moxibustion over a point on the little toe. Moxibustion is the name given to the process of burning a herb called moxa, which itself is the hair collected from the underside of the leaf of the mugwort plant (Artemisia Vulgaris).
The moxa is rolled tightly into a cigar shaped stick, which is lit and held just above the point to warm and stimulate it. The moxa is burnt over the point on each side for 15 minutes every day for 1 week. The process is completely safe (if a little smoky!), and the best results are obtained before week 36, because after that the baby has less room to shift around. The treatment will usually be done once by the acupuncturist, who will teach where the points are and provide a moxa stick for the patient to continue the process each day at their home.
