A majority of women will experience back pain during pregnancy, a time when many women are reluctant to take pharmaceutical pain medications. Furthermore, back pain often hinders sleep, care of older children, and completing tasks at work.
Thankfully, Chinese medicine has several tools that help support women struggling with back pain during pregnancy.
CUPPING
When conducted by a trained pregnancy acupuncturist, cupping can help to safely reduce muscle tension, increase local blood flow, and reduce pain sensations in the low and mid back. During pregnancy, cupping will be relatively mild and will feel like a warm gentle pull. This style of cupping during pregnancy may leave faintly colored marks but is unlikely to leave the dark purple and red colored marks that are typical of sports medicine style cupping. When performed over a series of appointments, cupping during pregnancy can improve range of motion and overall functioning of the muscles in the core.
ACUPUNCTURE
A pregnancy-trained acupuncturist can relieve back pain using acupuncture. The acupuncture needles may be placed directly at the location of the tight muscles, remotely at points in the lower leg and earlobe, or at all these locations. Your acupuncturist will assess the location and degree of muscle tension, assess your underlying health and constitution, and determine how many needles are required at which locations to help reduce the muscle pain.
MOXIBUSTION
While moxibustion is widely known for helping to turn breech babies towards the end of pregnancy, moxibustion is also commonly used to help reduce muscle tension and provide more strength to the low back region.
COMBINATION TREATMENT
Your Chinese medicine practitioner will likely use two or three of these modalities to ensure that your pregnancy back pain is relieved during the session. The combination of treatments can ensure that not only do you feel less pain but also your body overall is more relaxed and more resourced to support the continuation of the pregnancy.
HOW FREQUENTLY IS SAFE?
It is safe to receive a combination of acupuncture, moxibustion, and cupping several times a week if it’s needed to keep pregnancy back pain under control. Typically receiving care once or twice a week is sufficient to ease the pain. If these sessions are not sufficient to address the pain, then physical therapy and/or pelvic floor physical therapy can be safely used.
If you’re struggling with back pain during pregnancy, contact us at Inspire Family Acupuncture to see if acupuncture, cupping, and/or moxibustion will be right for you. Here’s to your growing family’s health!
