Greetings, Any suggestions on hyperemisis and marked nausea at 12wks, are people using acupuncture? There is conflicting information on treating pregnant women with acupuncture any advice?
Is acupuncture contraindicated during pregnancy
safety in early pregnancy
On September 9th, 2008 dbetts says:
Hi David – I’m not sure where the conflicting information refers to – you may be interested in a study from Australia where close to 600 women were divided into 4 groups – 2 had acupuncture (either PC 6 or a differential TCM diagnosis) and the remaining two groups had either no treatment or sham treatment.
TCM differential acupuncture treatment was shown to be of greater effect than acupuncture to PC alone or sham acupuncture (and no treatment)
No differences were found between study groups in the incidence of miscarriage
Outcomes with all P values > 0.05
Control 9
Sham 6
PC 6 11
TCM 4
Conclusion
Acupuncture is a safe and effective treatment for women who experience nausea and dry retching in early pregnancy
Our findings suggest that no serious adverse effects arise from acupuncture administered in early pregnancy
Smith C, Crowther C, Beilby J. (2002). “Acupuncture to treat nausea and
vomiting in early pregnancy: a randomized trial”. Birth. 29(1):1-9.
Smith C, Crowther C, Beilby J. (2002). “Pregnancy outcome following
women’s participation in a randomised controlled trial of acupuncture to
treat nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy”. Complement Ther Med.
10(2):78-83.
Hyperemesis
Hi David. In my experience, acupuncture is tremendously effective in treating hyperemesis. I once even treated a woman with a history of severe hyperemesis gravidum (sp?) throughout two previous pregnancies to the extent she was hospitalised with IV for rehydration for many months each time - with regular visits to me, we kept her out of the hospital and fully functional throughout her third pregnancy. (She also became pregnant that time after acupuncture with me - ovarian cysts). Some differentiation of each case is required - but don't just assume the standard PC 6 mumbo jumbo - lots more is typically involved including Stomach points, local points like Ki 18,19,20, CV 10, 12 - also Kidney 3 can be very important. Debra Betts book has a lot on the subject. I don't know where this 'conflicting information' about acupuncture and pregnancy is coming from - its remarkably safe and effective.
Daniel Schulman
Charlottetown, PEI, Canada