What is Pregnancy Acupuncture? And why is it different from regular acupuncture? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of receiving Pregnancy Acupuncture

Pregnancy Acupuncture sounds pretty self-explanatory. Acupuncture for Pregnant Women. Yep you guessed it!

I get many a question about How does it work? What’s Involved in a session? What can you treat with Acupuncture during Pregnancy? and so on.

If this is your first Pregnancy, or you’re Trying to conceive, this will be a new experience for you. If you’ve been Pregnant before and this is your time to try again for a second child, you will have a little insight here.

You may experience in the first Trimester:

• Cravings for certain foods such as carbohydrates
• Cravings for certain bizarre foods like Beyonce and her bananas dipped in tomato ketchup
• Cravings for inedible foods –  This phenomenon is called Pica.
• Heightened senses especially smell
• Your body becomes a barometer on hyperdrive, with new sensitivities to food, temperature, and environments
• Breast tenderness
• Morning sickness

In the Second & Third trimester:

• Back pain
• Neck & shoulder pain
• Sciatica
• Fluid retention – hands, wrists, ankles and legs
• Nerve pain
• Pubic pain & Pelvic Pain
• Varicose veins
• Heartburn & reflux
• Insomnia
• Haemorrhoids
• Migraines & headaches

And Other Pregnancy diagnosable conditions such as:

• Itching
• Placenta Praevia
• Gestational Diabetes
• Breech Presentation
• Anxiety & Depression
• Vaginal Varices (Varicose veins in the vagina)

….amongst many other things. You may be thinking, “what a wonderful experience!”. But ask any Pregnant woman and I’m sure they’ll have their story to tell!

It’s all an individualised experience for each woman. But to get to the point, there are Acupuncture options for a Woman experiencing these signs and symptoms.

Pregnancy Acupuncture Guidelines – Here’s what I recommend:

Early Pregnancy – the treatments are focused on managing any early morning sickness, promoting good nourished blood flow to the foetus and nourishment of the mother to sustain early pregnancy. Energy levels, sleep and any stress can also be managed here. I talk more about it in this blogpost here.

Mid Pregnancy – treatments become focused on comfort levels and managing any pain that begins to appear in this trimester. Secondly, hyper-emesis or prolonged morning sickness can be helped here using Acupuncture. Placenta Praevia may be diagnosed here, Acupuncture can assist, but in 85% of cases it corrects itself. Stress & Sleep management are good practices here too.

Late Pregnancy – If there is any Breech Diagnosis, now is the time to begin getting Acupuncture, before bub is too big and no longer has the space to turn. Acupuncture may assist an External Cephalic Version performed by the hospital. Between 34-36 weeks is your window of opportunity. Heartburn and reflux tend to ramp up a bit here, excellent if you can get some acupuncture at that stage to ease symptoms.

Pre-Birth Acupuncture & Birth Preparation – This is such an exciting time for expectant mothers. You can start Pre-birth Acupuncture from 37 weeks. Acupuncture at this time is hugely beneficial to women and I have talked about it at length in the following blogposts:

Birth Preparation using Pre-Birth Acupuncture

Did Acupuncture work to induce Labour?

Acupuncture to bring on labour

This is Pregnancy Acupuncture in a nutshell. Pregnant women aren’t sick, but they’re often dealing with new symptoms they may have never experienced before until Pregnancy. For someone who always had an ‘iron stomach’, having morning sickness was a rude shock, along with Heartburn & reflux. It just wasn’t on my radar to expect symptoms so severe, yet the common answer to all the confusion of “where did that come from?” is “Oh, that’s just Pregnancy.”

So far as to say Debra Betts, a researcher, author and Acupuncturist says that putting it down to “Oh, that’s just Pregnancy”, leaves women feeling stuck to endure and push through their symptoms, like there is no way around it. In her opinion, Acupuncture provides many treatment strategies and successful relief for the complaints listed above. So consider Acupuncture during Pregnancy, it could make a difference in the coming 9 months.

For further information on Pregnancy Acupuncture, frequency of treatments or questions, please email me at info@springfertility.com.au