We chat with Selph Acupuncturist Eamon to find out a little more about acupuncture and how it works to support a mother through labour and birth.
Acupuncture is becoming widely known for its ability to support the body’s natural process and increasingly, women are being recommended by their care providers to try acupuncture in order to encourage spontaneous labour and allow them to feel prepared for birth.
Can you tell us what exactly is labour induction?
Labour induction means to lead the patient to labour through a range of artificial means, some of which can include; prostaglandin, catheter insertion, oxytocin and ARMS. Increasingly, women are being recommended by their doulas, midwives or obstetricians to try Acupuncture to progress to labour and avoid medical induction, if possible.
However, in the studio we tend not to use the term ‘induction’. This is because if the mother is close to or past her due and her contractions have yet to begin, there’s often a reason why. Our job is to identify and address these reasons in order to allow labour to progress naturally.
Acupuncture does not induce labour, it facilitates the body transitioning through stages if mother and baby are ready for birth. Regardless of whether acupuncture plays a role in avoiding medical induction, we know we can support the body relax enough so that mum is as ready as she can be in the event that induction becomes a reality.
Can you explain how acupuncture works to support the body’s natural process?
Oftentimes our role as acupuncturists in a birth support setting is to address challenges of baby’s position, hormonal activity, cervical ripening, as well as the mother’s emotional wellbeing.
Stress can be a huge limiting factor when it comes to progressing through to labour in the same way stress is problematic in day-to-day life, and for this reason, stress is our first acupuncture target.
Providing a calm, relaxing environment is of paramount importance for the mother to begin preparing for birth. As practitioners our role is to support the mother through specific treatment goals and landmarks via acupuncture, acupressure and/or gentle movement exercises.
Each woman elects care at varying stages, some need support with engagement, hormonal changes, cervical ripening and/or initiation of contractions. Acupuncture is not a one shot approach to guaranteeing natural labour; most women will require multiple and frequent visits in order to achieve their desired outcome. Which equals more chill time.
Tell us how acupuncture can help you can prepare you for birth.
We use acupuncture to target specific goals at each week of your visit during the final stages of pregnancy:
Week 36: Ideally, birth preparation treatment should begin around week 36, when the baby typically begins to engage.
Week 37: In week 37 our goal is to support hormonal shifts and tissue softening.
Week 38: In week 38 of pregnancy we use acupuncture to promote cervical ripening.
Week 39: If the baby is still high by week 39, we strongly promote engagement and tissue softening. If the baby is engaged, we focus on promoting cervical ripening.
Week 40: If the baby is engaged and mum has a ripe cervix we promote contractions, otherwise we work to strongly address cervical ripening or previous targets as necessary.
Our key goal regardless of week is to facilitate relaxation and calm, as emotional wellbeing and preparedness is a big barrier to your body relaxing and welcoming labour and birth.
Anything you can do that’s fun or relaxing is the most important thing to prioritise in the later stages of pregnancy. Whether that’s slow walks and movement, catching up with loved ones or just relaxing at home with the family.
To learn more about how acupuncture can support you or to book an appointment with Eamon, click the link below.