The First Trimester – Morning Sickness
When you feel exhausted and nauseous in the first few weeks of pregnancy it is good to know you can go somewhere to feel better.
Acupuncture helps relieve morning sickness and keeps you going at a time when you can’t really talk about how you’re feeling to other than a few close friends and family.
It can be a shock to feel so fatigued and not know what to eat or drink for the best. The healthy food you loved just a few weeks before seems to be the very last thing you feel like eating.
Sensitivity to smells can make crossing the kitchen and opening the fridge a major operation and cooking smells become hard to manage.
Seeking specialist nutrition support at this time can help guide you and keep you on track through the all important first few weeks of your baby’s life. Miscarriage concerns can also be aired and supported until your safely reach your 12 week scan.
A few weekly acupuncture sessions from week 6-10 when nausea is usually at its height can help the body cope with the huge flux of hormones and change that can be overwhelming at this time.
I had severe migraines and morning sickness from 7 weeks . After just a few sessions they improved and I’m feeling less tired and nauseous.”
~ Louise
The 2nd Trimester
Getting through your 1st Trimester and safely through your 12 week scan is often when women feel almost magically back to their normal selves.
Nausea drops off and once the placenta is finally fully formed at 14-16 weeks energy returns and it can feel like you can focus on work, home, friends and your relationship again.
Some women may need support with heartburn, hormonal headaches or sciatica which sometimes rears its head every time the baby has a growth spurt and the body has to adjust.
The hormone relaxin helps the progressive loosening and opening of the waist and pelvis as the baby grows but sometimes tight muscles and tendons need extra magnesium or acupuncture to help them relax and adapt.
This is also a good time to clean up your diet again and keep carbs low and slow as well as fibrous and non-refined to keep sluggish bowels moving smoothly.
Supporting your gut with probiotics and pre-biotic foods keeps the gut microbiome healthy ready to be passed onto the baby at birth or during breast-feeding.
Our gut bacteria begin to communicate with the baby’s immune system even in utero – prepping it for life outside the womb.
Third Trimester – Getting Ready for Birth
From 36/7 weeks pre-birth acupuncture follows a set of well-have researched acupuncture points which have been shown to help women go into labour on or near their due dates.
The points help relieve stress, improve energy, deepen sleep and help bring in hormones like oxytocin which help soften the cervix in preparation for giving birth.
Acupuncture at this point in your pregnancy also supports any fear and anxiety around giving birth and how you might cope with a newborn.
Acupuncture Induction – Getting Labour Going Naturally
Once past your due date it’s hard not to feel pressured. Fear at this point jolts you out of the calm state your body needs to be in for labour to start. Acupuncture ‘induction’ strongly reduces stress and gently but firmly nudges your cervix to soften and open and your hormones and endorphins to flood in so that you naturally tip into labour.
Labour started at 5pm just after leaving you and baby born 6.18 a.m at home. All natural. So thank you! And wow! I didn’t think it’d be that strong an effect.”
Post Natal Acupuncture
‘Mother Warming’ is a traditional Chinese treatment which uses ‘moxa’ and gentle acupuncture to calm the mind, help sleep and nourish the abdomen and back to restore strength and vitality to the pelvic floor, abdominal muscles, lower back. It’s an important time for women to check in on how breast-feeding is going and how they’re feeling in their new role as mothers.
I felt I was a bit disconnected and didn’t want to be touched much. So the warmth of the moxa was good. I could feel it reconnecting me and bringing me back to life,”
~ Alinah
