Chinese Medicine and Pregnancy
Chinese medicine has a long tradition of supporting women who experience difficulties with pregnancy at any stage:
getting pregnant
staying pregnant
a positive delivery experience
often overlooked: the time after delivery
What does that mean in detail:
Getting pregnant: I see patients with varying concerns including anything from ovulation, uterine conditions (i.e. endometriosis) to irregular period or male suboptimal fertility.
Staying pregnant: the first hurdle is taken, now symptoms like nausea, constipation, water retention, back pain etc need to be dealt with.
Birth: Most commonly patients come to see me with issues like breech babies, ‘late’ babies (inducing labor)
Post delivery: Patient concerns can range from insufficient breast milk, to mastitis to feelings of exhaustion (physical and mental) up to postnatal depression.
Contact me for your specific questions, but from a Chinese medicine perspective, it breaks down to:
Harmonise if there is an imbalance,
Tonify when deficient,
Cool if there is an excess (usually an inflammation of some kind), and warm the body if there is a cold condition.
Most women will experience a mix of several factors. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs have been used for hundreds of years for women’s fertility and address their specific symptoms based on their respective constitution.