Your pregnancy acupuncture timeline

Did you know that acupuncture can help with many pregnancy related concerns? Let's break down the timeline!

Acupuncture treatment in the first trimester of your pregnancy can help reduce the risk of miscarriage. There are many different factors that can lead to pregnancy loss. Treatments can help offset a number of them.

While having information about your ultrasounds and blood work is useful, there is a lot that can be done without it. At each appointment, your pulse will be checked. Your pulse conveys a lot of useful pointers about what your body needs. Acupuncture treatments will then be catered to what your pulse shows.

Additionally, acupuncture will help offset those pesky first trimester symptoms, including nausea, fatigue, temperature regulation challenges, and the list goes on.

Weekly treatment is recommended in the first trimester.

Because this is the part of the pregnancy that is often smoothest, many people will take a break from treatment in the second trimester. Others will space out treatments a bit more.

Those who continue to be treated in the second trimester often do so for continued nausea, body aches, sleep challenges, or constipation. It's useful to note that as a general rule, the sooner treatment is started after the onset of a symptom, the easier it is to resolve. If you're dealing with unpleasant symptoms, don't suffer needlessly.

Recommended treatment frequency will depend on what you're experiencing during the second trimester.

During the third trimester, we begin to focus on ensuring that things go well during your labour. This is broken down into a few key aspects.

The ideal time to begin preparing your body for labour is at 32 weeks. This gives us time to work on opening up your hips, helping your cervix ripen, and ensuring ideal hormone balance without shocking your body.

For labour preparation with no complications, weekly treatment is recommended.

Baby should generally be head down at 32 weeks. If baby is breech, the sooner we begin treatment, the more likely baby is to turn. If treatment is started after 36 weeks, the likelihood of turning baby significantly declines.

Acupuncture for turning a breech baby doesn't involve any direct manipulation of the baby. For this reason, this is a perfectly safe treatment. We use a combination of hip opening acupuncture points and moxibustion to encourage baby to turn.

Treatment frequency will be discussed during your appointment. You can likely expect to come in more than once a week until baby turns. You will also have daily homework consisting of exercises and moxibustion.

Because labour induction with acupuncture is different from a medical induction, it's important to begin induction treatments before the time you want to go into labour. Induction acupuncture focuses on gently encouraging your body to take the last few steps before going into labour. It does this by preparing your cervix, promoting baby's movement into the birth canal, and increasing oxytocin levels.

If the plan is to avoid going a day past 40 weeks, it's ideal to slowly begin induction treatments around 36 weeks. If labour timing is less strict, there is a bit more flexibility in when to begin. You should plan for about 5-6 induction treatments if your cervical dilation or effacement are not very advanced. To that end, treatments can be done mulitple times a week. For maximum efficacy, it's recommended not to wait until you're already overdue to begin treatments.

Are you looking for pregnancy acupuncture in Ottawa? Book an acupuncture appointment with Christina!