I had the fortune of taking an excellent class with Claudia Citkovitz, the leading American researcher on the benefits of using acupuncture to expedite labor and delivery. She currently heads a large, ongoing study at Lutheran Hospital in Brooklyn and is starting another one at Beth Israel in Manhattan.
The study at Lutheran Medical center entitled Effects of Acupuncture during labor and delivery in a U.S. hospital setting: a case-control pilot study, concluded that acupuncture can greatly reduce the number of cesarean sections (7% versus 20%) and 87% of the patients being treated with acupuncture reported improvement with treatment.
Acupuncture can be a greatly effective tool when labor has stalled or is failing to progress.
There are many reasons why this can be happening:
-the baby is in a less than optimal position (possibly posterior)
-mom is laboring on her back
-mom is shutting down due to feelings of stress, fear, etc.
There can also be constitutional issues that are affecting the way mom is laboring. In Traditional Chinese medicine these patterns could be:
-yin vacuity
-phlegm/dampness
-yang vacuity and/or
-liver qi stagnation
Specific acupuncture points can be used to help create a smooth labor pattern that has either failed to start or failed to progress. Points are also used to treat pain, headache, edema as well as constitutional issues that may be contributing to a stalled labor.
If a labor is moving smoothly than acupressure can be just as effective to help mom feel better through the contractions.
Debra Betts, a leading acupuncturist and midwife from New Zealand, has an excellent website that helps illustrate acupressure points for labor and delivery. Check it out.
Showing posts with label acupressure for pain relief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acupressure for pain relief. Show all posts
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Acupuncture during labor
Acupuncture can be an excellent tool for inducing labor as well as facilitating labor once it commences. I once attended a birth that was a VBAC, meaning the mother was attempting to have a vaginal birth after a previous C-section. This particular woman got pregnant with her second baby three months after giving birth to her first via C-section.
After 12 hours of a somewhat erratic labor she took the epidural to get some rest. She slept for about 4 hours and pretty much got stuck at 7cm. The midwife felt like a vaginal birth was probably not going to be an option. Obviously disheartened and discouraged, I felt that she needed a change of energy. I began to needle the bottom of her foot at a point called Yong Quan, or Gushing Spring along with a point on her hand called He Gu, Union Valley.
I used Yong Quan, a point on the kidney meridian because I felt that she was experiencing a lot of fear about the possibility of another section and also because of the close proximity of her second birth to her first. In Chinese medicine, the Kidneys are responsible for sexual maturation, childbirth, the aging process and they are gravely affected by the emotion fear. (see my post on the Kidneys)
I needled this point along with the point in the hand and i watched as she began to experience contractions again. She was wondering if the epidural was wearing off? I continued for about a half and hour until i realized that she was progressing rapidly. I called the midwife in and low and behold she was at 9 1/2 cm. Pushing came naturally to the woman and a beautiful baby boy was delivered 20 minutes later.
I often recommend acupuncture when labor is stalled and I always recommend acupuncture for the weeks preceding birth (see pre-labor treatment). Acupuncture can help with pain relief but I find that women prefer to move about during contraction making acupressure a bit more realistic.
Other methods for stimulating labor are:
-nipple stimulation
-sexual stimulation
-physical exercise
-an enema
After 12 hours of a somewhat erratic labor she took the epidural to get some rest. She slept for about 4 hours and pretty much got stuck at 7cm. The midwife felt like a vaginal birth was probably not going to be an option. Obviously disheartened and discouraged, I felt that she needed a change of energy. I began to needle the bottom of her foot at a point called Yong Quan, or Gushing Spring along with a point on her hand called He Gu, Union Valley.
I used Yong Quan, a point on the kidney meridian because I felt that she was experiencing a lot of fear about the possibility of another section and also because of the close proximity of her second birth to her first. In Chinese medicine, the Kidneys are responsible for sexual maturation, childbirth, the aging process and they are gravely affected by the emotion fear. (see my post on the Kidneys)
I needled this point along with the point in the hand and i watched as she began to experience contractions again. She was wondering if the epidural was wearing off? I continued for about a half and hour until i realized that she was progressing rapidly. I called the midwife in and low and behold she was at 9 1/2 cm. Pushing came naturally to the woman and a beautiful baby boy was delivered 20 minutes later.
I often recommend acupuncture when labor is stalled and I always recommend acupuncture for the weeks preceding birth (see pre-labor treatment). Acupuncture can help with pain relief but I find that women prefer to move about during contraction making acupressure a bit more realistic.
Other methods for stimulating labor are:
-nipple stimulation
-sexual stimulation
-physical exercise
-an enema
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