Today a patient called me–She said she labored this morning and gets a baby girl after our 2 session acupuncture treatments.
Her labor was over-due at 42 weeks and 2 days pregnancy, her OB doctor suggested her using medication to induce the labor. But she liked to try acupuncture first. It was worked! She got two days’ treatments in our center for “acupuncture labor induction”.
However, another patient (with 40 weeks pregnancy) got two acupuncture treatments during this week in our center, she did not start the labor yet, only got more intermittent cramping, she did not resume our acupuncture treatment. She said she likes to wait and see what will happen.
Acupuncture does help some of the patients whose labor is over-due. Based on our experience, two to three session acupuncture is needed–once a day, each for 45 to 60 minutes. We had 7 cases for “acupuncture labor induction”– 4 were successful, 2 were not (did not have enough cramping with 36 hours after the second acupuncture treatment) , one stopped only after one acupuncture(too hurry to start the medication).
I find there are more and more needs in natural way to accelerate/ induce the labor. Some video are online:
For more information is at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19922252
Effect of acupuncture on induction of labor.
Source
Division of Chinese Medicine, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Bundoora Campus, Victoria, Australia celim@unswalumni.com
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this study is to review the existing scientific evidence on the potential role of acupuncture on induction of labor during pregnancy.
DESIGN:
The Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine), and NCCAM (The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) databases were searched to identify relevant monographs from 1970 to 2008.
INCLUSION CRITERIA:
These criteria included all available human acupuncture studies on pregnant women carrying a viable fetus due for third trimester induction of labor.
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
These criteria included studies not meeting the inclusion criteria, in languages other than English, or animal studies.
RESULTS:
Ten (10) studies on labor induction were identified. The duration of labor as a result of acupuncture treatment ranged from 10 hours 20 minutes to 29.1 hours. All of the studies demonstrated labor induction by acupuncture treatment. However, because two randomized controlled trials reported that there was no statistically significant effect of acupuncture, these results are more suggestive than definitive. Furthermore, although the relationship between cervical ripening and interleukin-8 (IL-8), prostaglandin F(2alpha) (PGF(2alpha)), and beta-endorphin is well documented in the literature, there is no evidence to suggest that acupuncture alters these mediators. Serum levels of IL8, beta-endorphin, and PGF(2alpha) were not found to be significantly influenced by acupuncture.
CONCLUSIONS:
Although the definitive role of acupuncture in inducing labor is still yet to be established, the existing studies suggest that acupuncture may be beneficial in labor induction. Further randomized clinical trials are needed to investigate this further.
- PMID:
- 19922252
- [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
Virginia Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine 