You’re going to be pregnant for the next nine months, and that’s a lot of time. You’re going to want to do everything you can to stay healthy, including getting acupuncture for pregnancy. There are several benefits to getting acupuncture during pregnancy—and no risks!—including easing morning sickness, treating gestational diabetes, inducing labour, turning a breech baby, and easing pain and swelling.
Ease morning sickness
Acupuncture for pregnancy can be used to help with morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms. Acupuncture is a form of healing that uses thin needles to stimulate the body’s energy pathways. This stimulation helps your body heal itself naturally, reducing morning sickness, back pain, fatigue and leg cramps.
In addition to helping with common pregnancy ailments like nausea, acupuncture may also be able to help you deal with more serious conditions such as gestational diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy.
Help with gestational diabetes
Acupuncture pregnancy is a great tool for helping alleviate pre-existing conditions that may be worsened by pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes. Because acupuncture can help with blood sugar levels, it can prevent or reduce the symptoms of gestational diabetes.
In addition to decreasing your risk of developing gestational diabetes, acupuncture can also help with stress and anxiety during pregnancy. Stress tends to increase during pregnancy due to many factors; acupuncture helps relieve this stress by reducing cortisol levels in the body, which reduces feelings of fatigue and depression.
Help get labour started
The acupuncturist can stimulate the release of oxytocin, a hormone that helps get labour started. Oxytocin also helps with contractions and dilation of the cervix.
Acupuncture is thought to help in other ways, too: It may increase blood flow to your baby and placenta, relax you during labour (which can make those contractions more tolerable), and decrease pain from labour contractions.
Turn a breech baby
It’s important to turn your breech baby before delivery. Though it may be tempting to wait until you’re in labour and try to turn the baby then, this is not a safe option. If you do not get help in turning your infant prior to delivery, he or she will be born feet first (breech). This means that his or her legs and feet will emerge from your vagina before the rest of his or her body. About 1% of all full-term babies are delivered in this position, though the number increases with multiple births; about 27% of twins have a breech presentation at birth!
Ease pain and swelling
Acupuncture can be a great tool for managing pain and swelling during pregnancy. For example, acupuncture can help with varicose veins, headaches, back pain, joint pain and muscle pain. As you know from your experience with other treatments during your pregnancy (massage and chiropractic care), you may not need to rely solely on acupuncture alone to relieve these symptoms. But it can certainly be an effective complement to traditional approaches such as medication or physical therapy.
Conclusion
Acupuncture is a great way to support your body and your baby during pregnancy. It can help with morning sickness, gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as other symptoms that may arise during pregnancy. Acupuncture is also useful for turning breech babies and helping them be born head first if they are stuck in the wrong position at birth!
