In North America, as our knowledge has grown, viewpoints about the use acupuncture have changed dramatically. Today, midwives are calling on acupuncturists to help with troublesome pregnancies, acupuncturists are working next to obstetricians in hospitals helping women through labour, and family doctors refer to acupuncturists to help with post partum care.

Today’s reality reminds me of one story told by an instructor at a convention on pregnancy and acupuncture. Years ago when he first started practicing, doctors and nurses were not sure how to integrate his work with theirs. One day, he was called into the delivery room to help with a difficult labour both mum and baby were in distress. Their heart rates were up and the labour was not progressing. My instructor employed a few well known acupuncture points and instantly the monitors showed both the baby and mother’s heart rates return to normal. The medical team was amazed. It was examples like this that helped legitimise acupuncture to the Western medical establishment. Today, Jean Levesque works alongside a team of over 20 acupuncturists who focus on pregnancy in the province of Quebec. His team has helped lots of ladies through the birthing process.

For me, it’s been a great opportunity to learn from sage healers like Jean Levesque, Bob Flaws, Debra Betts, and Raven Lang who’ve been treating labour and pregnancy with acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine for years. It wasn’t easy for them – pioneers of Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture in the West – to pave the way for practitioners such as me. It used to be that for someone to learn acupuncture and TCM, and to learn it well, they initially had to find out how to read and speak Mandarin. This is not the case today. These doctors have translated information and made it possible for the new generation to also become proficient doctors of TCM.

I’ve been practising TCM for six years and have observed an amazing increase in interest in acupuncture. Working with ladies before, during, and after pregnancy is a huge and growing part of my practice. Less are the days when I’m asked “Once I am pregnant, is it safe for me to keep going with the acupuncture?” My response remains, “Absolutely, and your body would like if you did.”

By no means has acupuncture and Chinese medicine become “mainstream”. Nevertheless with family doctors and reproductive experts referring patients for acupuncture, I am confident that medicine is moving that way.

Jeda Boughton is a Vancouver acupuncturist and Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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Tags : Pregnancy
Categories : Pregnancy