Women looking to alleviate their labor pains may one day be able to request non-drug therapies like hypnosis or acupuncture in place of drugs. A review appearing in the current issue of The Cochrane Library says that results from alternative pain relieving therapies - long used by midwives in home births - have been very positive. A large number of alternative pain relieving therapies were studied during the trial, but only hypnosis and acupuncture had a noticeable effect. The researchers found that hypnosis reduced the need for both pain relief and labor augmentation drugs, and also increased the number of natural vaginal births. Women treated with acupuncture also found that they could deal with their labor pains far better than women who did not receive treatment.
Acupuncture and hypnosis are nothing new to doulas (a woman who offers non-clinical labor support) that implement these techniques while assisting women with home births. "Many of my students choose to use acupuncture, but mostly it's the ones who give birth outside the hospital," said Penny Simkin, a doula educator and faculty member at Seattle Midwifery School. But because acupuncturists are barred from hospitals, the bulk of women do not have access to alternative treatments.
This could be about to change, however, as the Cochrane review has demonstrated that acupuncture and hypnosis are effective pain management options. Ideally, it is hoped that the review will be used to break down the barriers between mainstream medicine and so-called alternative therapies. "When we talk about pain relief, acupuncture can induce a very impressive sense of relaxation," said Simkin. "So I think that it does have a place and I think that it is gaining in respect in leaps and bounds in this country."
Source: Health Behavior News
