Ep. 17: How Acupuncture Supports a Healthy Pregnancy, with Jerusha DeGroote Stephens

At every stage of pregnancy, acupuncture benefits parents and babies, and offers natural, drug-free relief from common ailments in pregnancy.

Back in episode 11, Jerusha DeGroote Stephens and I talked about the benefits of Chinese Medicine for infertility and IVF support. Today, we’re talking about what happens AFTER the positive pregnancy test.

Pregnancy is an exciting time, but it can also be a time of great anxiety, particularly for someone who’s been through a pregnancy loss. As Jerusha says, acupuncture creates the space for your brain to downshift and let go of the stress of appointments and schedules and medications. An acupuncture treatment is a time to let someone else take the wheel and take care of you (and a time when no one will ask you for a snack!)—a respite that’s desperately needed for pregnant patients and parents of young kids.

In this episode, Jerusha and I discuss:

Redefining self-care as a survival and not a luxury, and why self care is so crucial during pregnancy

How acupuncture can treat common health issues that arise at each stage of pregnancy, including nausea morning sickness, anxiety, carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain, joint and ligament pain, sciatica, gestational diabetes and hypertension

Research studies supporting the use of acupuncture for cervical ripening and labor preparation, and moxibustion for turning a breech baby

How acupuncture can help during the “fourth trimester” or post-natal period, by calming anxiety, replenishing qi and blood, reducing inflammation, minimizing pain and even facilitating lactation

Towards the end of the episode, Jerusha and I discuss two of my favorite things about treating pregnant patients. One is that they almost always report a lot of fetal activity during a treatment. Turns out babies in the womb love acupuncture! And increased fetal activity kind of blows that whole “acupuncture is just a placebo” argument out of the water. Another is that pre- and post-natal treatments often make for some of our best acupuncture stories, like the time my patient had her baby in the car on the way to the hospital after getting acupuncture. Jerusha shares a few of her own powerful patient stories of acupuncture doing the seemingly impossible.

I hope you enjoy this discussion on the many ways acupuncture helps support mothers, families, and new life.

Love and gratitude,

Your Acupuncturist

P.S. We do discuss pregnancy loss, so if that’s a difficult subject for you, you might want to skip this episode.

You can keep up with Jerusha online at Sprouted Heart Acupuncture and Wellness, learn more about her collaborative, integrated fertility treatment model online at Paradigm, follow Sprouted Heart on Facebook and Instagram, or contact Jerusha by email.

References:

Moxibustion for Correction of Breech Presentation: A Randomized Controlled Trial:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/188144

Acupuncture for Cervical Ripening and Induction of Labor at Term - A Randomized Controlled Trial:https://europepmc.org/article/med/11802511

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