Acupuncture and Pregnancy

Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy (NVP) – Self-Care Guide

Congratulations on your pregnancy! The good news is that morning sickness can be a sign of a healthy pregnancy. The difficult part is that it can make it hard to enjoy being pregnant, and sometimes even to get out of bed!

Below are some suggestions of ways to take care of yourself. Not all suggestions will be of interest to everyone and acupuncture for pregnancy is not always the first course of action, but I hope that you will find some suggestions that bring relief and comfort.

1. Rest and Relaxation
Your body is doing a tremendous amount of work – consider that the fetus and placenta are entirely developed by 12 weeks gestation (all systems have developed, ready to grow and mature), so it is understandable that your body needs some extra rest. When exhausted, a woman is more prone to suffer from nausea and vomiting. Enjoy guilt free afternoon naps and going to bed early.

2. Little and Often
Eat frequent and small meals to keep blood sugar levels stable. A small snack every 1-2 hours is recommended (avoid sugary foods). All women want to eat well for themselves and their babies, but often morning sickness makes many of the dream foods unpalatable. Eat what you can. Don’t worry if that means lots of crackers and white bread. The fruits and vegetables will come when you start feeling better.

Hunger makes nausea worse. The key is to snack throughout the day. Try to eat nutritious foods, but also respect your body’s limits and messages. Try protein rich snacks (e.g. Nuts, yogurt, bread and tihini, brown rice with miso, fish or lean meat) before bed. Increase your protein, iron and vitamin B intake and avoid spicy and greasy foods. Some recommended foods include:

Almonds, rice, crackers, dried fruit (especially apricots and raisins), egg sandwiches, grapefruit, yeast extract, miso, noodles, peaches, pears, peppermints, potatoes, white bread, yogurt, baked vegetables, and soups- especially potato soup and rice congee.

3. Drink up
Drinking plenty of water is good for us all the time. Women experiencing morning sickness benefit from drinking between meals (drinking with meals can increase nausea). The key is to stay hydrated. Dry lips, feeling thirsty and scanty or infrequent urination are signs that fluid intake is inadequate.

You can also get lots of water (along with valuable nutrition) by drinking herbal teas.
Ginger root tea relieves nausea for many women. A study* comparing the effectiveness of ginger root tea with vitamin B6 found no significant difference between the two, with all women having reduced nausea, retching and vomiting at 7, 14, and 21 days of participation.
Raspberry Leaf tea is a pregnancy tonic that many women find brings gentle relief of nausea and stomach distress. This tea has a rich concentration of vitamin C, the presence of vitamin E, and the easily assimilated calcium and iron, in addition to vitamin A and B complex as well as many minerals, including phosphorus and potassium.

Peppermint or Spearmint tea These fragrant teas can bring relief and settle the digestion of those sensitive to smells.

Making a herbal infusion: use a jar that has a lid and holds at least 4 cups of water. Put one handful of loose leaves (or roots in the case of the ginger) and pour boiling water into the jar. Leave for 4 hours or more (it’s easy to prepare this before bed and have it ready room temperature in the morning).
Long steeping extracts all the chlorophyll, as well as the vitamins and minerals. Drink over the course of the day.
If you want to steep a fresh hot cup of tea, leave a teaspoon of herbs in a cup of water for at least 15 minutes.

4. Visualize
The digestive tract is meant to have a downward motion (you eat, food goes down to your stomach to be digested and then down to the intestines to be absorbed and evacuated). Nausea and vomiting are examples of upward motion, in Chinese Medicine terminology this is called, “counter flow of Stomach energy”.

Visualization can re-establish downward flow (this is also largely the benefit of acupuncture treatment for morning sickness).
I like to imagine I am standing under a beautiful natural waterfall. I feel the water gently falling onto my head and then flowing across my shoulders and down my body. My feet are solid on the ground in pools of water. This water is absorbed into the ground.
This visualization can be done standing up or sitting down (with feet flat on the floor). Imagine warm sun and cool refreshing water. Breathe deeply with this image in mind for a couple minutes.

5. Touch
Any loving supportive touch can be very soothing and relieving. Try downward strokes along your arms or legs. Have someone massage your feet if you can’t reach them comfortably yourself. A special pressure point for nausea is called “P6” in Chinese medicine. To find it, put three fingers along this inside of your forearm, with one finger directly above the upper crease of your wrist. In the middle of the forearm at the spot where the third finger rests you will find a sensitive point if you press with firm pressure with your thumb. This technique has been used for thousands of years to bring relief of nausea. Press into the spot and maintain pressure while you take 4 breaths and then release and repeat; or you can apply the pressure with the breath – pressing into the point when you breathe out and coming off the point when you breathe in. See which ways feels better to you. Repeat for 5 minutes every couple hours.

6. Exercise and Fresh Air
Even if you don’t initially feel like doing much, exercise like walking, tai chi and yoga have been found to make women feel much better once they get started. A gentle push out the door may make all the difference in the world.

Good luck and congratulations!

Tags: acupuncture for pregnancy, afternoon naps, healthy pregnancy, morning sickness, nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP), NVP pregnancy, self care guide, vomiting in pregnancy