Post-Natal Health

Adjusting to a new baby brings physical, mental and emotional challenges. 

The key to getting through is having the support to look after your health as well as your baby. 

Naturopathy and acupuncture can help with:

• Boosting your energy levels
• Physical recovery and healing from the birth
• Combating stress, anxiety and post-natal depression
• Lactation issues

As a new Mum you might also have to cope with an unsettled baby. 

Your diet and natural medicine can effectively treat your new-born if he or she suffers from colic, reflux, constipation, rashes, or sleep patterns that make you tear your hair out.

Induction

Tick-tock… tick-tock… Still waiting? 

Medically induced labour is appealing when you're past your due date. But it increases the need for medical intervention during birth. 

Acupuncture is a great way to bring on labour when you're overdue. Make sure you come and see us at least 3 days before your medical induction is planned so the treatment can take effect. 

Herbal medicine can be just as effective if acupuncture's not your bag. 

Neither of these treatments are as strong as medical induction.  If you're baby's not ready to be born then it's unlikely that herbs or acupuncture will be able to shift it.  However, both may help to shift blocks within your body, so this natural process can progress as it should.

Birth Preparation

Even if you've had the cruisiest pregnancy possible, acupuncture is a fantastic pre-birth treatment. 

A team of researchers discovered that the average labour time for women having their first baby was reduced by 1.5 hours if they had pre-birth acupuncture. 

That makes sense. Pre-birth acupuncture helps ripen the cervix and gets good energy flowing through the pelvis and uterus.  It also helps to calm the nervous system and connect you into your body.

The process involves 4 treatments - either twice a week from 38 weeks, or once a week from 36 weeks.

Herbal medicine can also prepare your body for an easy labour by encouraging strong uterine tone and good circulation and calming the nervous system.

Morning Sickness

Morning sickness isn't limited to the morning. Some Mums-to-be feel nauseated right through the day, but naturopathy and acupuncture are fantastic ways to combat it.

If you've been through a preconception care programme you'll have minimised your chances of suffering from morning sickness.

If not, there's still hope!

Naturopathy focuses on preventing nausea through your diet. It's about choosing the right types of food and eating them at the right time of day.

There are certain vitamins and minerals that can help, too. And herbs are great for preventing and treating nausea.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture has completely stopped morning sickness in some cases.

Can Chinese Medicine help turn a breech baby?

The simple answer is yes!

The standard treatment to turn breech babies in Chinese medicine is the application of moxa (a heat stick containing the herb Artemisia vulgaris, or Mugwort) to an acupuncture point found on the outer corner of the fifth toenail.

Why? The treatment is said to increase foetal activity.

In a Chinese study carried out in 1999, 130 patients with breech babies at the 33-week mark had this treatment every day for seven days.

This was compared with a control group of another 130 patients with breech babies who received no treatment.

At 35 weeks' gestation, the babies had turned for 75.4% of the group who received the moxa. That's compared with only 47.7% in the control group. Check out this study.

If you've been told your baby is breech, come in for an initial consultation and acupuncture treatment.

We'll figure out the causes and put a plan in place to remedy them.

You'll learn how to use the moxa sticks, and we'll send you home to treat yourself daily.

We follow up with weekly acupuncture to help maximise blood and energy flow to the uterus - and this usually fixes the problem!

Debra Betts and acupuncture during pregnancy and birth

Debra Betts is a nurse who did her acupuncture training in London in 1989.

When she returned to NZ she set up a private practice in Wellington specialising in pregnancy and women's health care.

By 1997 she was teaching acupuncture courses to midwives and she's now a leading expert in obstetric acupuncture.

In particular, Debra advocates the use of acupuncture to assist with:

Morning sickness - acupuncture is completely safe during pregnancy. At a time when most drug therapies are not available to women, it provides welcome relief from debilitating nausea and vomiting. Click here to find out more.

Threatened miscarriage - currently Debra is completing her PhD examining the effect of acupuncture on threatened miscarriage.

Breech presentation - read more about this in the article above.

Pre-birth acupuncture - the use of acupuncture to prepare women for labour was first researched in the 1970s by Kubista and Kucera. They found that acupuncture once per week from 37 weeks was successful in reducing the average labour time of women treated. 

Birth acupressure or acupuncture for pain relief - Debra is very passionate about providing women access to information that helps them have a smoother birth. She has created a free downloadable booklet that teaches people how to use acupressure for pain relief during labour. She is also very active in teaching midwives how to use acupuncture to support woman during birth.