I had several hours to kill and ran into a colleague of my mothers who taught her acupuncture and Chinese medicine. This was something I grew up with in my house, so I am not one of those people that had to be convinced that Eastern medicine was a viable alternative to Western Medicine.
I asked him if he thought it could help some knee pain I was experiencing from my dance class, and he said of course. Before an acupuncturist treats you like a human pincushion, he asked me about my general health, and I told him about my desire to become pregnant within the year.
The Darwin of Dentists
He then told me about a man named Dr. Westin House Price, wrote down a website for me to check out, and it has been fairly interesting to read up on him. He was a dentist who went around the world in the 1930s and did research on nutrition and diet and how it affected teeth. While his main focus was teeth, he did find out some very interesting things about “primitive” diets during pregnancy. I have taken this from the website of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation
Dr. Price’s investigation showed that primitives understood and practiced preconception nutritional programs for both parents. Many tribes required a period of premarital nutrition, and children were spaced to permit the mother to maintain her full health and strength, thus assuring subsequent offspring of physical excellence. Special foods were often given to pregnant and lactating women, as well as to the maturing boys and girls in preparation for future parenthood. Dr. Price found these foods to be very rich in fat soluble vitamins A and D nutrients found only in animal fats.
These primitives with their fine bodies, homogeneous reproduction, emotional stability and freedom from degenerative ills stand forth in sharp contrast to those subsisting on the impoverished foods of civilization-sugar, white flour, pasteurized milk and convenience foods filled with extenders and additives.
Basically, I am to eat a lot of fat, but not the kind in twinkees and ho-hos, but animal fat, or organic oils like olive, coconut, macadeamia nut, and avocado oils. I think that won’t be a problem. He also told me to eat lots of organic butter.
Acupuncture and Pregnancy
But back to the acupuncture and pregnancy . . . Among the many benefits of acupuncture during pregnancy, a recent study has shown its particular effectiveness in relieving morning sickness or the potentially more dangerous hyperemesis gravidarum (severe vomiting during pregnancy). The Australian study published in the journal Birth reportes that of 593 women less than 14 weeks pregnant who participated, those who received traditional acupuncture reported having less frequent and shorter periods of nausea than the women who received no acupuncture. These improvements were felt immediately and lasted throughout the study’s four-week duration. In the first trimester, acupuncture can also relieve fatigue, migraines and bleeding.
Research reported in a November 1998 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that an aspect of acupuncture called moxabustion, when applied to 130 pregnant women with breech presentations, significantly increased the number of head-first births. Used for centuries in China to turn breech babies, moxabustion employs long sticks of the herb moxa to produce a gentle, smoldering heat and a smoke that are held close to an acupuncture point in the little toe. The treatment, most effective at 32 to 36 weeks, should only be used in healthy pregnancies (from Pregnancytoday.com).
I am not scared of needles. In fact, I am quite intrigued that an acupuncturist can actually jab something two inches into my body, and I pretty much feel nothing. All the needles he put into my knee were fine, however, the needles in my ear hurt a bit when they were placed. However, as soon as he left the room, I fell promptly asleep and didn’t wake up for an hour. Couldn’t have hurt that bad.
What exactly are you going to be poking?
Acupuncture treatment is recommended once a month to ensure the optimal health of the mother and the developing fetus at different stages of growth and differentiation. Tradition has it that Zhubin (K9), the “beautiful baby point“, should be needled at the end of the third and sixth months to ensure a happy, healthy, and of course, gorgeous baby. The Chinese name for the point means “guest house”. The Zhubin point, located just below the calf muscle and above the inner ankle bone, is known to calm the mind, relieve anxiety and help to build blood.
It is claimed that “stimulating this point minimizes the transmission of toxins from the mother to the child, increases the health of the baby and its resistance to disease and also tonifies the mother’s Qi.”
In preparation for labor and delivery during the last month of the pregnancy the expectant mom should be seen weekly.
For more info, see these pages at Acufinder.com
How can acupuncture be used in pregnancy?
1. Acupuncture for the healthy mom:
2. Acupuncture for pre-existing medical issues:
3. Acupuncture for pregnancy related conditions:
- Psychological issues
- Physical problems
- Fatigue
- Morning Sickness
- Heartburn
- Constipation
- Hemorrhoids
- Back Pain and Sciatica
- Edema
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Rhinitis of pregnancy
4. Breech Presentation
5. Induction for post due date
6. Labor
7. Acupuncture for Post-partum disorders:
- Fatigue
- Postpartum vaginal discharge
- Postpartum Depression
- Mastitis
- Insufficient or Excessive Lactation
- Post Operative Healing
Hope this opened up some options for your back aches and morning sickness!
1 Comment
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