A Quick Overview of Acupuncture & Pregnancy

In North America, as our knowledge has grown, viewpoints about the use acupuncture have changed dramatically. Today, midwives are calling on acupuncturists to help with troublesome pregnancies, acupuncturists are working next to obstetricians in hospitals helping women through labour, and family doctors refer to acupuncturists to help with post partum care.

Today’s reality is reminiscent of one story shared by an instructor at a seminar on pregnancy and acupuncture. Years back when he initially began practicing, doctors and nurses weren’t certain how to integrate his work with theirs. One day, he was called into the delivery room to help with a tricky labour both mother and baby were in trouble. Their heart rates were up and the labour wasn’t progressing. My instructor made use of a few well established acupuncture points and immediately the monitors showed both the baby and mother’s heart rates return to standard. The medical team was surprised. It was instances like this that helped legitimize acupuncture to the Western medical establishment. Today, Jean Levesque works with a team of over 20 acupuncturists who specialize in pregnancy in the province of Quebec. His team has helped hundreds of women through the birthing process.

For me, it has been a fantastic opportunity to learn from sage healers like Jean Levesque, Bob Flaws, Debra Betts, and Raven Lang who have been treating labour and pregnancy with acupuncture and Chinese medicine for many years. It was not easy for them – pioneers of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and acupuncture in the West – to lead the way for practitioners like me. It used to be that for somebody to learn acupuncture and TCM, and to learn it well, they first had to learn how to speak and read Chinese. This isn’t the case today. These doctors have translated info and made it straightforward for the next generation to also become proficient doctors of TCM.

I have been practising TCM for 6 years and have noted an incredible increase in interest in acupuncture. Working with women before, during, and after pregnancy is a large and growing part of my practice. Fewer are the times when I am asked “Once I’m pregnant, is it safe for me to carry on with the acupuncture?” My reply remains, “Absolutely, and your body would prefer if you did.”

By no means has acupuncture and Chinese medicine become “mainstream”. Nevertheless with family doctors and reproductive experts referring patients for acupuncture, I am confident that medicine is moving that way.

Jeda Boughton is a Vancouver acupuncturist and Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

categories: acupuncture,pregnancy,birthing,acupuncture & pregnancy,women’s health

Do You Know What Hypnobirthing Is?

Many people think that hypnotherapy involves putting people in trances by swinging a watch in front of their faces and mumbling some words. So when it comes to hypnotherapy for childbirth, people think the same thing happens. This is what the media has thrown up in the papers and has gotten us to believe.

We are all used to seeing stage shows and performances by popular hypnotherapists on the media. However, hypnobirthing is nothing like that. It does however put you into a state of mind (or trance) to help you relax.

So what’s this hypnobirthing all about? What it actually is, is a method to help women relax by putting them into a deep state of relaxation for pregnancy labor and birthing. Women are also taught several different techniques that help deal with the anxieties and fears of going through labor.

With these sort of programs, women get to know their bodies and natural birth tendencies intimately. You see from childhood, they are normally told how painful and scary childbirth is, hence most women get stressed out and tense making labor a lot more painful than it should be. They also are mostly worried that there might be complications during childbirth and the hypnotherapy helps to ease these fears.

This is not a quick process and it takes several weeks to months (depending on the individual) to achieve the desired mindsets. Most couples who take these hypnobirthing sessions tend to walk out feeling positive, in fact very positive, about their upcoming childbirths.

One of the key points about these hypnotherapy sessions this that they reinforce the fact that women do not need to know how to give birth, as this should be natural. In most cases, patients have been known to have gentle, quiet and beautiful childbirth experiences. What’s more the babies tend to enter the world very relaxed and calm as well as alert.

There are now more and more hypnosis for childbirth centers all over the world. You’ll easily be able to find one near you if you look up your local phone book directory. It is suggested that you visit several different classes before deciding on one that you feel most comfortable with. This is extremely crucial as being comfortable is the first step in putting yourself at ease with birthing.

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Infertility & Getting Pregnant

Many couples these days have to ask themselves how they can get pregnant. It’s a problem that is getting more and more common amongst those trying to conceive.

If you search Google you will see there are almost 18 million results for the term “how to get pregnant”. This tells you how big this problem is.

Numerous factors are involved but there is no need to panic, getting pregnant can be easily attained, and by natural means.

80% of the time your lifestyle habits will be to blame for your infertility.

Food, environment, exercise and emotional state all contribute towards your ability to get pregnant. If you are having trouble conceiving then you need to boost your fertility, which you do by looking at all of these together.

You don’t need to worry though because it can all be reversed. Infertility is a state of being which means you can modify it, with the right guidance and information.

Start by cleansing your body of toxins. Do this by eating healthily; introduce more vegetables, fruits etc. Try and eat organic where you can. Most of all stop drinking, smoking and taking drugs, if any of these apply to you.

Exercise on a regular basis. Research shows that your fertility is affected if you are over OR under weight.

Reduce stress in your life. Its not easy but this also affects your fertility levels. See where you can help yourself in this regard.

For the perfect all round technique use Yoga. It will help you reduce your stress levels and teach you to relax. Added to that it will help stimulate blood circulation to the organs necessary for getting pregnant.

Check out the link below “how to get pregnant” for a step by step action plan. Such a plan is essential in you achieving your goal of getting pregnant.

How to get pregnant need not be a so daunting. You can easily accomplish it with the right planning and by making the required changes in your life. You just need the knowledge and the dedication.