Home Remedies To Induce Labor – Does Acupressure Really Work?

There are all kinds of home remedies to induce labor including having sex, bouncing on birth balls, taking various herbal supplements and even eating spicy food. However, the use of acupressure is becoming very popular among the medical fraternity and many women are turning to acupressure because it is safe and effective and there are no side effects or potential risks to either the woman or her unborn baby.

What is Acupressure?

Acupressure is a branch of Chinese  medicine that has been in existence since around 4,000 years BC and has now become an accepted treatment of the western culture. It is based on the belief that a flow of energy, an essential life force called “qi”  runs through the body along 12 main channels (“meridians”) corresponding to the body’s main organs.

Acupressure is one of the best home remedies to induce labor because it concentrates both on the physical and emotional well being of the woman before and during labor.

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So how does acupressure work?

Acupressure means applying pressure on specific parts of your body with your fingertips and thumbs to help induce labor.  These specific points can be found on shoulders, hands, lower legs and ankles. The pressure may applied as a rotating movement, static movement or in a press-release manner. Specific maternity acupressure points encourage the baby to drop down and engage in a position for birthing, ripens and dilates the cervix and stimulates contractions so should never be used before a woman has reached her due date.

Does acupressure have to be performed by a specialist?

Although a woman could use an acupressure specialist, the technique is fairly simple to learn with only a few basic instructions and so she or her partner could apply the techniques themselves. Sometimes a woman may only need one treatment to kick start her body into going into labour, but normally she would apply the technique for about 5 minutes at a time, several times a day.

How do I know If I am doing the acupressure correctly?

When a point is being stimulated correctly, there should be a feeling around,  or at the point of  pressure of numbness,  heaviness, warmth, tingling, aching, or a buzzing sensation. If the woman feels any pain, then usually the point is re-positioned or another point is tried.

How do I use acupressure during labor

Your birthing partner should have familiarised themselves and been able to locate the specific pressure points before applying any form of acupressure. Armed with this knowledge, there are specific points that can be used to stop feelings of nausea, help with back pain and act as pain relief for painful birthing contractions.

The great thing about choosing acupressure as one of the home remedies to induce labor is that because of its simplicity, it can be easily learned , thus enabling a woman to be able to treat herself during her pregnancy for related symptoms such as morning sickness and lower back aches. This gives her the freedom to act whenever and wherever a feeling of nausea kicks in.  Also her birthing partner can get more involved and be able to help her with pain relief during the delivery. Studies have also shown that women who used maternity acupressure had a much faster and easier birth than women who had no acupressure.

For your step by step instructions to acupressure/home remedies to induce labor, click here