Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice of applying tiny needles to stimulate certain energy channels called meridians in the body to rebalance the chi or energy of the body. Because it is quite effective in treating chronic illnesses, several pregnant women are using acupuncture to avail themselves of drug-free relief from various unwanted pregnancy symptoms.
An acupuncture study done in Australia revealed that before their 14th week of pregnancy, women who were treated with acupuncture on a regular basis experienced shorter episodes of morning sickness and had less nausea compared to women who were not treated with acupuncture. Acupuncture was also shown to work in alleviating hyperemesis gravidarum, a condition that lingers throughout pregnancy that causes serious vomiting.
Acupuncture can be used to treat hemorrhoids and heartburn during the second trimester. It can help relieve carpal tunnel syndrome, joint pain, and sciatica that can appear during the third trimester and which a lot of women tend to experience late in pregnancy. During labor and delivery acupuncture in Miami can also be used to eliminate pain.
If you’re pregnant and want to receive acupuncture for conditions experienced during pregnancy, it is important to seek out a qualified and licensed acupuncturist who has experience treating the condition(s) you’re suffering from. Acupuncture treatment for ankle swelling or edema, for example, can help cure the condition but although this treatment can be used to treat edema, the edema itself can be a sign of a more serious problem. Your acupuncturist should be able to recognize this problem and ask you to see your obstetrician.
During pregnancy, one risk of acupuncture is that if improperly performed, it may induce labor. This risk can be significantly reduced if you choose an experienced acupuncturist. The truth is a lot of women now use acupuncture to stimulate labor intentionally when delivery is overdue. Some of them have discovered that stimulating labor through acupuncture is a lot better than inducing labor through medications like Pitocin.
Besides the benefits that acupuncture can provide during pregnancy, labor and childbirth, the treatment can also help treat infertility and boost fertility. In a study conducted in Germany, women who were treated with acupuncture as adjunct to in vitro fertilization had a rate of success of 42.5 percent compared to only 26.3 percent in women who underwent in vitro fertilization without acupuncture. Fertility researchers ascribe this to the general betterment of health derived from regular acupuncture sessions.
Lastly, acupuncture can also provide benefits for women suffering from post-partum depression. While there are still no studies that would prove the effectiveness of acupuncture therapies on post-partum depression, there are a lot of anecdotal evidences showing that many women, in fact, gain certain health benefits from acupuncture when it’s used as a complementary treatment.