It's beneficial, I would even say essential if our society could support it, to have birth support and caregivers during pregnancy and labor. And this is why we love to provide birth prep acupuncture at our Santa Barbara office.
Acupuncture has been found to be a very helpful prenatal tool as it supports the body the body in its natural progression from prenatal to postpartum. Our bodies have evolved over time to perfect the art of childbearing, we are so strong and capable. To help expectant mothers connect to their innate wisdom, self-trust and inner strength is paramount as a birth caregiver.
When a mother is connected in this way it pays dividends as they move through childbirth into postpartum. The parasympathetic controls our oxytocin and endorphin release, calms the heart rate and promotes blood flow to the uterus. The Sympathetic nervous system triggers adrenaline, increases blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and intellect. Acupuncture is wonderful at promoting the production and flow of oxytocin. And why exactly is oxytocin important for birth? Firstly, oxytocin is the calm and connect hormone.
Important for mother health as it moves one calmly and steadily toward birth it's responsible for uterine contractions when the body is ready for them , as well as promotes our other feel-good pain relieving endorphins.
Oxytocin is important for baby health as it supports mother-baby bonding and elicits a mild euphoria. What is neat is that by mom supporting her oxytocin during birth prep she is in turn supporting baby's oxytocin levels as they are tightly and beautifully intertwined, before and after labor. In addition, studies have shown acupuncture to be useful in supporting cervical ripening. Cervical ripening is important to ready the cervix for labor, even medically induced labors, resulting in reduced active labor times.
