The authors of a Cochrane Database systematic review have concluded that current evidence supports the use of acupuncture to help with pelvic and back pain during pregnancy. They looked at 26 randomised, controlled trials, across which a total of 4093 pregnant women had participated. Evidence of moderately good quality suggested that both acupuncture and exercise, tailored to the stage of pregnancy, can significantly reduce pelvic pain and lumbo-pelvic pain, compared with usual care alone. Two-thirds of women experience lower back pain during pregnancy, and a fifth experience pelvic pain.
(Interventions for preventing and treating pelvic and back pain in pregnancy. Cochrane Database Systematic Review, August 2013.)
Author: Robin Costello
I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training.
I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.
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