MM Acupuncture
Acupuncture helps to reduce stress, fear and anxiety related to the approaching birth date
shoulders and behind the eyes. As always with any pain, it is very difficult to maintain daily life and responsibilities, and therefore restoring the homeostatic balance to its very best is very important if you want a healthy and symptom-free pregnancy.
• Sleep quality can often decline in this period, as your baby grows and you get more uncomfortable, especially towards the end of the second trimester. Having regular acupuncture treatments will help you to be free of pain and possible incidences of indigestion and constipation, which are often indicated during these times in your gestation. Indigestion very often prevents good sleep.
Third trimester In the last weeks of your pregnancy, your body goes through even more changes, preparing you for the time when you will finally meet your little one. However, by now the symptoms of nausea and sickness most likely are completely gone and your hormones are more stable. Acupuncture helps to:
• Reduce stress, fear and anxiety related to the approaching birth date. This is very unlikely to happen if you had acupuncture during the first and/or second trimester, because by this stage, most of your bodily functions, including stress regulation, are normalised.
• Reduce pain in the pelvic floor and lower back due to the increased weight and the descending position of your baby.
What can acupuncture help with?
First trimester During the first trimester, acupuncture helps the following:
• To reduce nausea and morning or all-day sickness. By being able to eat your meals without being nauseated, your energy levels will remain stable. Being able to eat healthily is a must when you are nurturing a new life.
• An ability to relax, if you continue to work and cannot avoid stressful people, work situations and events.
• To release endorphins, the feeling-good hormones, and lowers adrenaline, promoting relaxation. Your changing body’s functions are regulated, allowing you to function without disturbance to your daily activities and family life.
Second trimester When you approach the second trimester, you might be faced with issues relating to the growing of your baby, and acupuncture is then invaluable to help with:
• Back and/or pelvic pain, either localised or distributed to other areas, such as in sciatica – it might start in the low back, and then refer to buttock and calf areas.
• Headaches, due to the changes in hormonal balance, might also be localised in certain areas, and then extend to your neck,
14 Modernmum
Married to Olympic gold medallist, James Cracknell, Beverley is mum to Croyde, Kiki and Trixie.
• With the help of the associated technique of acupuncture, moxibustion, it can help turn your baby naturally without the need of medical intervention in breech.
• In the last couple of weeks, acupuncture helps to soften the cervix and to keep smooth, energetic oxygen and blood flow in the pelvis and the whole of the lower abdominal area.
• Once the baby is engaged, acupuncture can promote further movement down the birth canal and help to establish and/or regulate contractions – this is especially useful if your waters have broken but the contractions are at the start-stop rate and you are not progressing.
• Pain relief in labour with acupuncture is extremely effective, but this option might not be available to you if you are having a hospital birth, as some hospitals do not allow it, whereas others do, so it will depend on where your birthing is taking place. If you are having a water birth, acupuncture is used up to the second stage of labour.
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