Acupuncture for Pregnancy and Beyond

When properly performed by a licensed and experienced practitioner, acupuncture is a safe treatment option during pregnancy, and many women find that acupuncture can address a number of physical, emotional, and hormonal changes that take place during this time. 

During pregnancy, Seaman Chiropractic can help eliminate or decrease: 

• Psychological issues: The most common psychological symptoms that can be treated with acupuncture are anxiety, worry and tension. Besides supporting internal balance, acupuncture is deeply relaxing and a great antidote to depression and post-partum depression. Depression is usually a result of blocked energy in the liver caused by anger, frustration, resentment or mechanical damage from viral or chemical sources.

• Morning sickness:  You don't have to suffer from nausea and stomach issues! The main aim is to suppress the rebellious stomach.

• Edema: Also called swelling, ankle and foot edema is most common during the second and third trimesters and is caused by a rise in circulating fluid in the body.

• Fatigue: The most common symptom suffered during pregnancy, fatigue is remedied by sleep and a nourishing diet. Acupuncture helps enhance production of blood and other fluids and promotes optimal functioning of the internal organs.

• Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS): Due to the circulation of extra fluid in pregnancy, the compression of the meridian nerve can cause pain and discomfort. 

Inducing Labor

Having a licensed chiropractor perform acupuncture to induce labor avoids the hospital's insistence on a timetable and giving the expectant mother Pitocin to induce or speed up labor. As a Chicago chiropractor who is also a trained acupuncturist, Dr. Cynthia Seaman has been treating patients with acupuncture for 25 years.

Pitocin is an artificial version of the body's hormone Oxytocin. There can be a few unfavorable results when the drug Pitocin is used. The drug may stop muscle contractions or it may be the cause of too many contractions. It may even cause contractions to go on for too long. Pitsosin can be the cause of pain and suffering for the unborn child-fetal distress. In spontaneous labors, the mother naturally makes Oxytocin and that triggers the onset and progress of labor.

However Pitocin is not the only drug received by women whose labor is being induced or sped up. The use of Pitosin requires the mother be given IV fluids, have continuous electrical fetal monitoring due to the chance of fetal distress and remain sedentary in the hospital bed while connected to this equipment. This increases the severity of contractions and that leads to narcotics and painkillers given at the dosage for an adult. These drugs are secondarily transferred to the child. Essentially the child is receiving an adult dosage, which is dangerous. 

Acupuncture can induce labor without the usage of drugs, creating a safe delivery for both you and your baby.