How I Treat Pregnancy Care

Pregnancy Acupuncture

Rainbow Medicine clinic assists women with various needs during pregnancy. The primary goal is to support the natural progression of labour and calm the nervous system.

Acupuncture can help different stages of pregnancy:

Morning Sickness:

The cause of morning nausea may be sudden hormonal increases such as hCG, estrogen and thyroid hormone. Some women could experience symptoms during the entire pregnancy.

Morning sickness can cause sudden hormone increases like hCG, estrogen, and thyroid.

Acupuncture is a highly effective treatment of morning sickness during pregnancy, with one to two weekly visits in the first trimester.

Breech Baby

A breech pregnancy is a baby positioned head up in the womb at week 34–35 of pregnancy rather than in head down position to get ready for birth.

Acupuncture combined with moxibustion could turn the baby around toward the birth canal.

Induce Labour

Acupuncture is an effective and low-risk modality to induce labour after reaching the full term. The treatment is recommended three times over a 3-5 day period.

I treat in pregnancy and I have firm rules about it, because this is where caution is genuinely warranted rather than performative.

My rules. Your maternity carer knows you are seeing me, and I will write to them. No herbal medicine without their clearance, and some formulas not at all. Side-lying with support from the second trimester, never prone, never flat on the back for long. Specific points avoided. Shorter sessions. And I ask how many weeks you are at every appointment rather than working from memory.

What I treat: nausea in the first trimester, back and pelvic pain, carpal tunnel symptoms, reflux, constipation, and third-trimester sleep. Pelvic girdle pain I treat and also refer, because pelvic health physiotherapy has specific and effective management for it and the two together work better than either.

Birth preparation, including referrals at term. I see women weekly from about thirty-six or thirty-seven weeks, and a proportion arrive on a GP or midwife referral at term. If you have one, bring it with your maternity notes: I want your dates, who is leading your care, and anything being monitored.

What I will say about those appointments is that women generally report sleeping better and feeling more settled. What I will not say is that acupuncture brings labour on, shortens it, or reduces the chance of intervention. The trials are limited and inconsistent, so claiming it would be unsubstantiated — and if it led someone to put off a recommended induction it would be dangerous, because a pregnancy past its dates carries risks your maternity team is monitoring for a reason. Induction is their decision, on medical grounds, and I write to them rather than around them.

What I will not do. Treat a condition that belongs with your maternity team, or continue treating when something needs assessment.

What goes to your maternity service immediately, and I will make the call with you in the room if needed: reduced fetal movements, any bleeding, fluid loss, severe or persistent headache, visual disturbance, upper abdominal pain, sudden facial or hand swelling, one-sided calf pain, or fever.

Perinatal anxiety and low mood are common, treatable, and routinely referable — please raise it. The clinic is in Lane Cove, opposite the library.