Obstetrics
						Acupuncture in Obstetrics Our typical patient is either someone who we have treated for fertility problems or comes first near the start of her pregnancy having heard that acupuncture is good for nausea and vomiting. Having found out how well the treatment works and how good it makes them feel many come for top up treatments to continue to feel good throughout the pregnancy and as a first aid measure throughout the pregnancy, after the birth and sometimes during labour. Our treatment is usually supported or recommended by midwives and indeed, many of our patients are midwives or doctors themselves. Following her own personal experience of acupuncture pre-conceptually and for induction of labour Marianne has taken specialist acupuncture obstetrics training with Sarah Budd, a well known midwife-acupuncturist in the UK, and also studied with “media midwife acupuncturist” Zita West. Marianne is known for her personable and caring approach she has treated many women at all stages of the pregnancy process. Our experience is that acupuncture can help women with a range of pregnancy related problems and for many conditions this is backed by research. Apart from having a fairly good evidence base one good thing about this approach is its absence of any risk of toxicity to either mother or baby. The following table summarises some of the situation where acupuncture can help.
		Our experience Research evidence? Comments Morning sickness A lot. Roughly 4 out of 5 benefit. Many quality trials support its use. No adverse effects. Sustains better when done a few times. Foetal malposition We have turned most of our breeches. Even one where obstetrician said “impossible!” Supported by quite a few trials – some pointing to very high success rates. Needs to be done at the right stage and be midwife-monitored. Probably safer than “manual version”. Back pain, sciatica Moderate experience. Lots of general back pain research and a few papers specifically on pain in pregnancy. Many prefer to avoid pain killing drugs in pregnancy. This is a useful alternative. Induction of labour Have treated many. Successfully in most cases. Timing has to be right. A few clinical audit studies from hospitals in China. Some go into labour minutes of treatment. Others start up in next 24 hrs. Drug induction is associated with longer labour & more complications. Labour pain relief Quite a few. Some studies to show reduced pain scores and shorter average labour time. Need to establish a good rapport beforehand. Can be difficult for us to promise to be available. Have baby at weekend if possible! Retained placenta   A Swedish trial of 80 patients showed acupuncture effective and safer than traditional tug.   Other conditions 100’s of cases treated. Fatigue, depression and carpal tunnel syndrome being the commonest. Thousands of research papers have been published on acupuncture and obstetrics. We have treated numerous other pregnancy-related problems successfully. Some rare.