December 4, 2015

Labour Induction Acupuncture Brisbane: Our Story

How labour induction acupuncture and acupressure supported my wife during labour

In the United States and most western countries, most midwife-attended births take place in the hospital.  However, 1.4 percent of midwife attended births took place outside of the hospital in 2013.  Out of the 1.4 percent, 64.4 percent were in homes, and 30.2 percent were in birth centres.

This speaks to the growing number of women seeking natural birth options.  Many mothers attend natural birthing classes, read books, work on breathing techniques and do yoga in hopes to help them achieve the natural labor and delivery they are hoping for.  In the future, more and more mothers may be adding needles to their list of natural interventions! [1]

Being a parent can be a very scary thing the first time around and I wanted to share the story of how our son was born:

My wife was 39 weeks pregnant and our obstetrician wanted to schedule her in for labour induction at the hospital the next week.Our doctor was great and very knowledgeable & experienced, but we found it very strange how she told us we could only have the baby on a Thursday or Friday when she was working. The last time I checked, unless there is a medical emergency, which this was not,  babies are born when they are ready to be born. Not when its convenient for the doctor because he or she wants the day off.

Determined but scared, my wife was ready to cave into the pressure the hospital was giving us. We had heard countless stories of women being induced and having horrible experiences and having to undergo c-sections because of it. We also read studies of the health risks and lowered immunity and health problems of babies who were born via c-section.

We were running out of options and the only thing I could think of was acupuncture. A recent study concluded that women who received acupuncture were 39 percent less likely to have a cesarean section, compared to 17 percent in the control group.[2]

I had been giving my wife treatment throughout the pregnancy for morning sickness and we had been doing acupuncture throughout the pregnancy but we were running out of time.

With just a day left, we started pounding the acupressure points (pictured below.)

It was around 7:30pm in the evening and I was just finishing kneading the points when all of a sudden my wife said she needed to go to the restroom. And then thats when she realised her water broke!

After arriving to the hospital, she started having contractions around 11:15pm and we were able to halve the contraction pain by pressing BL31, and BL32 (pic below.)

Toward the very end however, the pain got to be too much for her and she ended up getting the epidural. Our son, Noah Wong was born at 4:08am Sept 14, 2014.

Happy to say that the acupressure helped tremendously for the pain, getting things moving along, and ripening the cervix. Theres a really great Free downloadable book by world renowned acupuncturist and midwife Debra Betts for labour induction here.

 

YouTube video HERE

Subscribe to channel HERE

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Tools Needed: Good Hands & Thumbs or Massage Triangle:

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Points Used For Labour Induction:

knead points in a circular motion clockwise in 30-50 second increments. These Points are meant to ripen the cervix and help your baby descend as well as calm you and your little one as he or she prepares to enter the world.

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Li4 Large Intestine 4

Sp6 Spleen 6

GB21 Gallbladder21

great video by Ancient Current  on how to stimulate GB21

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Points Used During Labour:

knead points in a circular motion clockwise in 30-50 second increments during contractions. These work really well for pain relief during contractions. These points work better as acupressure points and have reported to have lessen the pain by almost half.

They are located at the first and second sacral foramen. You can find them by simply locating the dimple in the lower back near the buttocks just one finger breadth in and one finger breadth down.

BL31 & BL32

Detailed Video on how to Stimulate BL32 by Acubirth

 

 

If you or someone you know would like more information on how Chinese Medicine can help with  labour induction acupuncture brisbane can help. feel free to contact us for a free assessment at our acupuncture Brisbane clinic.

references:

[1]http://news.therawfoodworld.com

[2]http://www.essentialbaby.com.au

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Bob Wong was raised in a traditional Chinese medicine family and moved to mainland China to study and train for almost a decade. During that time, he was able to learn from some of the top acupuncturists and Chinese Medicine practitioners in at the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. His mission is not bring that knowledge and experience to help his patients.

Bob Wong currently maintains an acupuncture practice in the Brisbane area and lectures at the Endeavour College of Natural Health. He is also on the board of advisors for the Acupuncture Now Foundation. For more information you can read his full bio or schedule an appointment.

*The owner of this site is not liable for any misfortune that should befall a visitor to this site.This site does not offer personal advice & no information on it can be construed as personal advice. In the event that you may feel our therapies may be of benefit, we advise you to contact the clinic to make an appointment for diagnosis and treatment.