According to MSNBC, a study published in the obstetrics journal BJOG found evidence that acupuncture may not ease the pain of childbirth. The findings found that among 105 first-time moms having labor induction showed no benefit from acupuncture given to them before contractions started. The study warns new moms-to-be that acupuncture may not be the answer for a drug-free labor.
Out of 105 first-time moms, two-thirds ended up requesting epidural pain medication during labor compared to 56 percent of women who received a placebo version of the procedure and 77 percent of those given no acupuncture treatment at all.
This study followed two research studies in South Korea and the UK, which analyzed 10 previous clinical trials of acupuncture for labor pain and found no evidence that the procedure eases pain during birthing.
The lead researcher on the current study said that he believed overwhelming research done by different groups suggests that acupuncture offers little benefit to women in labor.
Acupuncture has been used for more than 2,000 years in Chinese medicine to treat a variety of ailments. Specific acupuncture points on the skin are connected to internal pathways that conduct energy. Stimulating these points provides a healthier flow of energy and releases pain by altering signals among nerve cells.
For the current study, out of 105 women 52 were randomly selected to have acupuncture before a painful contraction. In the end, both acupuncture and placebo acupuncture groups showed no difference in the need for pain medication during labor.
