Acupuncture in Pregnancy Care: Evidence from Cochrane Reviews

Both John and Jacinta have been working with pregnant Mums for many years. A lot of the time, we are seeing patients who are looking to become Mums, or parents, and then continue to see us during their pregnancy.

We both have a special interest in Women’s health and take pride in being well respected acupuncturists amongst our community.

John has held lecturing positions over the past 15 years whilst maintaining his busy clinic, whilst Jacinta has continued her studies with post graduate qualifications in nutrition.

We’d love to welcome you into our cosy clinic space.

In recent years, acupuncture during pregnancy has gained in popularity. Of course, you should always seek out an APRHA registered acupuncturist – like us!

Pregnancy is a time of significant changes in a woman’s body, and many women experience discomfort and unwanted symptoms during this period such as:

Headaches in pregnancy
Back pain in pregnancy
Anxiety in pregnancy.

Hopefully you will be familiar with acupuncture. Perhaps you know a friend who has had acupuncture during pregnancy, or your midwife has suggested to give it a go.

In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of acupuncture in pregnancy-care based on evidence from Cochrane reviews and another randomised controlled trial. Just click on the drop down menus below!

If you want to talk with us please don’t hesitate to call the clinic on 3357 3205, or reach out through our contact form.

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Acupuncture in Pregnancy

Relief of Pregnancy-Related Symptoms: A Cochrane review published in 2018 analyzed 22 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 3,188 pregnant women to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture in relieving pregnancy-related symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting, back pain, and pelvic pain. The review found that acupuncture may be effective in reducing the severity of these symptoms compared to usual care or sham acupuncture.

The quality score for this review was deemed to be low due to the small sample sizes. Reviews love to see huge number of participants in trials in order for them to give them an unequivocal tick of approval – so the research continues. There is also a well know issue in clinical trials using Sham acupuncture ( thats where they put needles in places that are not defined acupuncture points ). Sham acupuncture along with the placebo effect can actually create a positive clinical effect in some cases – so, when you compare the actual effect of the ‘real’ acupuncture group to the ‘sham’ group, the positive effect compared to Sham acupuncture looks smaller than what it actually is. We really need to conduct trial without Sham acupuncture as the control group!

Acupuncture for Labour Induction

Acupuncture for Labour Induction:

Another Cochrane review published in 2018 analyzed 22 RCTs involving 3,262 pregnant women to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture in inducing labour. The review found that acupuncture may be effective in reducing the need for medical induction of labour and in shortening the duration of labour. However, the quality of the evidence was low due to the small sample sizes and high risk of bias in the included studies. Again, we need to gather many more pregnant bodies and design suitable trials based on how we actually treat in a clinical setting!

Acupuncture for Breech Presentation

Acupuncture for Breech Presentation:

A Cochrane review published in 2015 analyzed 13 RCTs involving 1,991 pregnant women to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture in managing breech presentation, a position where the baby is positioned bottom-down in the womb. The review found that acupuncture may be effective in turning the baby to the head-down position and reducing the need for caesarean section.

Another piece of research where a modelling approach, taking into account 10, 000 women, looked to evaluate both the costs and effectives of acupuncture-type interventions on Bladder 67 ( an acupuncture point ) on pregnant women with a baby in breech position. It was concluded that there were less breech presentations at term AND a decrease in the number of caesarian sections required.

Often, acupuncture research suffers the same fate as many other trials performed evaluating acupuncture – that the trials were deemed too small and the risk of bias was high. The take out message here is that we really need to design acupuncture-specific trials that help eliminate any perceived bias and reflect the real world experience.

Conclusion:

Based on the Cochrane reviews, acupuncture may be effective in relieving pregnancy-related symptoms, inducing labour, and managing breech presentation. However, reviewers are asking for more large scale trials to help lift the evidence score from low to moderate or good, as well as decrease any potential bias. We need to continue to push for better designed clinical trials !

Some Really Great Links Here!

Acupuncture/Moxibustion Research

Acupressure During Labour

Acupuncture for Pelvic Pain in Pregnancy

Acupuncture for Cervical Ripening

John-Taylor-Brisbane-Acupuncture-Chinese-medicine

Want to know more about how we may help with your current health concerns?

If you are looking for an acupuncture clinic in Brisbane where the practitioners pride themselves on their dedication to their work, then please get in touch. Phone us today at 3357 3205 or book online via the link below.

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Smith, C. A., et al. (2018). Acupuncture for pain and discomfort in neonates. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (5). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007814.pub3

Levett, Kate M., Smith, C.A., Bensoussan, A. & Dahlen, H.G. (2016). Complementary therapies for labour and birth study: a randomised controlled trial of antenatal integrative medicine for pain management in labour. BMJ Open, 2016 Jul 12;6(7):e010691. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010691.

Lim, C. E., et al. (2018). Acupuncture for induction of labour. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (10). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007701.pub4

van den Berg I, Kaandorp GC, Bosch JL, Duvekot JJ, Arends LR, Hunink MG. Cost-effectiveness of breech version by acupuncture-type interventions on BL 67, including moxibustion, for women with a breech foetus at 33 weeks gestation: a modelling approach. Complement Ther Med. 2010 Apr;18(2):67-77. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2010.01.003. Epub 2010 Feb 7. PMID: 20430289.

Vas, J., et al. (2015). Acupuncture for fetal distress in breech presentation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (9). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003928.pub3