Had miscarriages? Do you know that acupuncture can help recovery?
What is miscarriage?
A miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. An early miscarriage is the loss of pregnancy at ≤13 weeks’ pregnancy. About one in four pregnancies, where a woman has missed a menstrual period and has a positive pregnancy test, ends in early miscarriage. 3 or more miscarriages in a row are known as recurrent miscarriages.
The impact of a miscarriage on women
Miscarriage can be a physical and emotional challenge. It can have a potentially devastating psychological impact on the woman in addition to the physical effects such as bleeding and pain after all the excitement and expectation by discovering the pregnancy. It is very common to feel sad and tearful after being shocked by the tragic event. Feeling angry, jealous or guilty is also common. There are feelings of emptiness and loneliness that others cannot understand; feeling not able to cope with daily life. There is fear of not being pregnant again or having another loss. Research study has shown that one month after pregnancy loss, nearly a third of women suffered post-traumatic stress while one in four experienced moderate to severe anxiety, and one in ten had moderate to severe depression; after nine months, nearly 1 in 5 women had post-traumatic stress; moderate to severe anxiety, and 1 in 20 had moderate to severe depression. One in six women experience long-term post-traumatic stress following miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/194715/miscarriage-ectopic-pregnancy-trigger-long-term-post-traumatic/).
Most women will have a healthy pregnancy after a miscarriage. About 20% of women who have had a miscarriage have another miscarriage the next time they become pregnant. Some of them have difficulty to get pregnant again.
After miscarriage, the women’s body need to recover physically and in particular emotionally. Physical recovery can take a couple of months to get hormones rebalanced, get rid of the inflammation from the miscarriage and get the period started. Emotional recovery can take much longer.
Will acupuncture help with a miscarriage recovery?
Acupuncture can be very useful in the recovery from a miscarriage physically and emotionally.
Acupuncture helps to rebalance hormones; improves ovarian and uterine blood flow to get good quality of eggs and good uterine linings and receptivity. Acupuncture reduces inflammation and stress and anxiety to get one ready to get pregnant again physically. More importantly acupuncture can help release stress, anxiety and emotions and help recovery emotionally to be ready to get pregnant psychologically. Acupuncture can help regulate brain region where controlling emotions such as amygdala and nervous system and balance chemicals which plays a vital role in emotional processing to help mental and emotional release.
If women have difficulty to conceive after miscarriage, acupuncture can help to get pregnant faster.
What does research say about acupuncture for miscarriages
Acupuncture can be helpful to prevent from miscarriages. A study found that there was a significant reduction with threatened miscarriage symptoms including bleeding, cramping and back pain for women receiving acupuncture compared with the control. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5055689/).
A miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. An early miscarriage is the loss of pregnancy at ≤13 weeks’ pregnancy. About one in four pregnancies, where a woman has missed a menstrual period and has a positive pregnancy test, ends in early miscarriage. 3 or more miscarriages in a row are known as recurrent miscarriages.
The impact of a miscarriage on women
Miscarriage can be a physical and emotional challenge. It can have a potentially devastating psychological impact on the woman in addition to the physical effects such as bleeding and pain after all the excitement and expectation by discovering the pregnancy. It is very common to feel sad and tearful after being shocked by the tragic event. Feeling angry, jealous or guilty is also common. There are feelings of emptiness and loneliness that others cannot understand; feeling not able to cope with daily life. There is fear of not being pregnant again or having another loss. Research study has shown that one month after pregnancy loss, nearly a third of women suffered post-traumatic stress while one in four experienced moderate to severe anxiety, and one in ten had moderate to severe depression; after nine months, nearly 1 in 5 women had post-traumatic stress; moderate to severe anxiety, and 1 in 20 had moderate to severe depression. One in six women experience long-term post-traumatic stress following miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/194715/miscarriage-ectopic-pregnancy-trigger-long-term-post-traumatic/).
Most women will have a healthy pregnancy after a miscarriage. About 20% of women who have had a miscarriage have another miscarriage the next time they become pregnant. Some of them have difficulty to get pregnant again.
After miscarriage, the women’s body need to recover physically and in particular emotionally. Physical recovery can take a couple of months to get hormones rebalanced, get rid of the inflammation from the miscarriage and get the period started. Emotional recovery can take much longer.
Will acupuncture help with a miscarriage recovery?
Acupuncture can be very useful in the recovery from a miscarriage physically and emotionally.
Acupuncture helps to rebalance hormones; improves ovarian and uterine blood flow to get good quality of eggs and good uterine linings and receptivity. Acupuncture reduces inflammation and stress and anxiety to get one ready to get pregnant again physically. More importantly acupuncture can help release stress, anxiety and emotions and help recovery emotionally to be ready to get pregnant psychologically. Acupuncture can help regulate brain region where controlling emotions such as amygdala and nervous system and balance chemicals which plays a vital role in emotional processing to help mental and emotional release.
If women have difficulty to conceive after miscarriage, acupuncture can help to get pregnant faster.
What does research say about acupuncture for miscarriages
Acupuncture can be helpful to prevent from miscarriages. A study found that there was a significant reduction with threatened miscarriage symptoms including bleeding, cramping and back pain for women receiving acupuncture compared with the control. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5055689/).
