TCM and Pregnancy 1

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are extremely useful in treating women before, during and after pregnancy. The support TCM provides is useful in maintaining health as well as dealing with any problems that arise. Therefore, the phase before pregnancy can be used to nourish the Qi and blood of a woman so she is in the best of health when conception occurs. The same applies to a man, he can be treated to ensure his kidney Qi is firm and strong so healthy sperm are produced that swim in the right direction. The problem for some women is that the before phase lasts a long time, or pregnancies occurs but miscarriages happen. This can lead to being diagnosed with INFERTILITY. TCM is able to make at least 6 differentiations of INFERTILITY when it comes to a woman. They are the following: -

HEAT
COLD
DRYNESS
DAMPNESS
NOT ENOUGH QI AND BLOOD
TRAUMA AND STAGNATION

Once these have been identified by questioning the case history, observation of the tongue, palpation of the pulse, the differential diagnosis is made. Thus following on with treatment based on these findings, the chances of pregnancy increase.

For example, Sharon aged 32 had 3 miscarriages in her late 20's. Had been diagnosed with infertility, but blood tests and laporscopy procedure had revealed nothing conclusive. Therefore to specific treatment was designated from a Western medicine perspective. However it turned out that from a TCM point of view Sharon had too much cold in her womb and was therefore unable to sustain a pregnancy. She was always feeling cold, didn't eat enough cooked food, lived in a cold flat and walked around in bare feet. All these factors showed how the body of Sharon had lost its fire and therefore treatment was designed to re-kindle this fire using warming herbs like mugwort and cinnamon. An external form of heat was applied to acupuncture points using moxibustion and after 14 treatments over a 6-month period Sharon became pregnant and has a baby girl who is now 10 months old.

Seeing as the UK has such a cold damp climate, it is often seen that cold in the womb is the cause of infertility in the UK from a TCM perspective

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