Strollerderby : acupuncture

Chinese Medicine: Would You Use it During Pregnancy?

JeanneSager — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:36:00 GMT

What if the one person who could help you fight the pregnancy-induced nausea, augment labor and turn your breech baby wasn't a medical practitioner? At least not in the traditional sense of the word.

Because thousands of woman are adding another layer to their pre-natal care, adding a practitioner to their team beyond the OB/GYN or midwife. I'm not talking about the doula. I'm talking about their acupuncturist.

Practitioners of Chinese medicine are drawing on thousands of years of the use of acupuncture, herbal therapies and massage to cure some of the most common pregnancy hang-ups. And while some women are still unsure about stepping outside of the realm of American medicine, a California group profiled this weekend in The Mercury News shows the age-old customs are finding more acceptance not only with moms but more traditional medical practitioners.

A study last year showed that acupuncture might actually improve the viability of a pregnancy if administered shortly after a doctor transfer embryos via IVF. But Birthpoint, a group of Santa Cruz practitioners of Chinese medicine, expand their reach far beyond women who have undergone fertility treatments. They treat everyone - and they maintain a steady working relationship with OB/GYNs and midwives. In fact, some of the Birthpoint practitioners ARE certified midwives.

I have never used acupuncture, although I wish I'd had it available to me during my pregnancy considerig its approval by the National Institutes of Health for nausea during chemotherapy. Instead I used the nausea drugs given to chemotherapy patients to fight my hyperemisis gravidarum (extreme morning sickness). If it had been an option, I know I would have sought counsel from my OB/GYN first; I'd imagine most women would. Which makes this pairing so crucial. Most women take the word of their doctor or nurse during this time of their lives more seriously than any other time.

Did you try Chinese medicine during your pregnancy? Did you consult your doctor/midwife first? Would you have cared if he/she was not in support of it?

Image: The Mercury News

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Uninsured Children Turning to Alternative Medecine

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:00:00 GMT

For the first time, the government has officially studied the use of alternative medicine among kids, and the results are both exciting and discouraging. As someone who recovered from a severe childhood kidney disease using a combination of alternative techniques and low-impact mainstream interventions (I refused to do chemo against my doctors’ wishes), I find it exciting that the government is studying alternative medicine in the first place—and that nearly 12 percent of children are making use of unconventional techniques like meditation, acupuncture, and herbal supplements.

Being exposed to these techniques at a young age gave me a holistic approach to my mental and physical health that is invaluable to my well-being as an adult, so I hope the percentage of youth using non-traditional treatments continues to increase—but not as a replacement for traditional health care.

Unfortunately, the study also found that children are more likely to use alternative medicine when their families can’t afford traditional care. Appropriate nutrition and vitamins, no matter how useful they may be, are no substitute for necessary pharmaceuticals and regular doctor visits. Furthermore, studies on the benefits and risks of specific alternative treatments for children are few and far between.

Let’s hope the field of alternative medicine continues to grow in this country, right alongside the number of children with health insurance.

Photo: Shiatsuhealing.com

Anything to Conceive

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Cindy Chupack tried visualizing sperm with her husband’s face on them. She tried standing on her head. She tried electroacupuncture, which involved attaching spark plugs to the needles. She tried going on vacation with her husband and just enjoying sex for a while, you know, like they used to before they started racing her biological clock. She tried IVF, suppositories, hormone injections.

She tried an all-red meat diet, and then, when she read somewhere that red meat actually hinders pregnancy while she had a steak on the grill, she ate her stale gingerbread house in her frustration and hunger.

Like many women, Chupack, who recently wrote about her conception adventures for O Magazine, began the whole procreating process relatively late. It was not until she was 40 that she fell in love with the right man and had real longings for children—which was just fine by her, but not so fine by her body.

But, also like many women, Chupack will not give up trying. If you think that the gingerbread house incident put her over the edge, well, you’ve probably never tried to conceive.

Image: John Cuneo/O Magazine

Acupuncture Might Help You Get Pregnant

Madeline Holler — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:53:00 GMT

This might be some good news for people struggling to get pregnant: acupuncture, administered shortly after embryos have been implanted, might actually boost the chances of a viable pregnancy. The bad news is that it's acupuncture and, therefore, slightly fringe. (The good news response to that close-minded, Western-medicine-centric statement is that the study of acupunture's effects on fertility treatments is actually being done by scientists.)

Where were we? Right. The findings are far from conclusive, but here's what the researchers are thinking:

Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress. In fertility treatment, it is thought to increase blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit "fight or flight" stress hormones that can make it tougher for an embryo to implant.

A pool of seven studies, which included more than 1,300 women in four countries, was looked at. Only three of those studies showed positive results, but with smaller studies in the pool, there was a 65 percent boost in the odds of a pregnancy outcomes for fertility treatments that included acupuncture.

Experts warn against focusing on that number, because this type of analysis with pooled results is not proof that acupuncture helps at all, let alone by how much. IVF results in pregnancy about 35 percent of the time. Adding acupuncture might boost that to around 45 percent, the researchers said.

Still, it's something, right?