Good morning, All! A happy long weekend to everyone! It has been an exceptionally beautiful weekend here inTorontoand I was able to spend the majority of yesterday with a good friend, who happens to be very pregnant. Actually about two weeks from her due date. Needless to say, she is feeling quite uncomfortable. Not only is she feeling cumbersome, but the pain in her hips and joints is really starting to restrict a lot of movement.
I gave her an acupuncture treatment based on the meridians that her pain followed and the pain relief was immediate. She was able to stand up without pain, and more importantly, she was able to walk up the stairs to the bathroom without pain and her quality of sleep was much better because she wasn’t spending so much time during the night trying to get comfortable. So she asked me why I haven’t written about sciatic pain during pregnancy. The answer is simple: I didn’t really think of it because the treatment for pain during pregnancy is the same as treatment for pain without pregnancy. This goes for all kinds of pregnancy pains: headaches, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, back pain, hip pain, sciatic-type pain, and the list goes on. Acupuncture is a safe, holistic and very effective way of dealing with pain during pregnancy.
There are a few restrictions that every practitioner is (or should be) taught and you should feel free to ask your practitioner about them. With acupuncture, points like LI 4, SP 6, and GB 21 (located at the top of the shoulders) are all contraindicated because of their ability to move Qi and Blood. While pain is often due to a stagnation of some sort, too much moving can induce labor. Also, starting in the second trimester, points along the abdomen should not be used, though in the first trimester they help with certain conditions such as certain types of threatened miscarriage. Points in the lower back are avoided due to a risk of needling too deep and points along the sacrum can induce contractions and should also be avoided. Even through all of these contraindicated points, it leaves the vast majority of acupuncture points open for use. As for herbs and formulas, those in the invigorate blood categories and remove masses categories are contraindicated and should be avoided.
That being said, the contraindicated acupuncture points can be used to help induce labor in cases of an overdue pregnancy, our blog post on pregnancy and labor gives a detailed account.
Caroline Prodoehl, D.Ac.