Acupressure Points for Pregnancy

Series Summary

Traditional Chinese medicine is considered a complementary or alternative medical system in most parts of the world. It includes a range of traditional medical practices originating in China that developed over thousands of years. Traditional Chinese medicine practices include theories, diagnosis and treatments such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, acupressure and massage. Traditional Chinese medicine theory claims that processes of the human body are interrelated and in constant interaction with the environment. Its practitioners believe that signs of disharmony help them to understand, treat and prevent illness and disease. In this free video series on alternative medicine, a massage therapist offers helpful information on acupressure and pregnancy. Learn about acupressure points used to relieve certain ailments in pregnant women. Discover how and why an acupuncture physician might induce labor using acupressure. Find out about acupressure points used during labor and points to avoid during pregnancy.

Video Transcript

"So you want to help ease pregnancy through acupressure points. My name is Mark Brinson Doctor of Oriental Medicine, human performance and physical medicine specialist. During pregnancy you do have to use acupressure points with care. But there are several common ailments that you can help with. One that typically happens in the first trimester of pregnancy particularly in that first three to four weeks is the woman can have problems with nausea. While this is a normal part of the process what the body is doing is trying to really cleanse itself in preparation for being able to kind of house that new little body that is growing inside of it. The nausea is helping to just cleanse the system. But it can get to be a little bit excessive and there's a few acupressure points that you can use that are going to be helpful with that. One is a point combination that I'm going to show you. By combination I mean that you use these two points either simultaneously or one after the other and instead of doing what one does or the other it amplifies the effects of both. So the first point is one for nausea, called pericardium six. And it's located two finger widths below the crease of the wrist and right in between the tendons and just by stimulating this with your fingertips it can significantly reduce nausea. If you add to this point one that is just to the outside of the bump under the knee cap, so if you find the knee cap and you move your way just down to this bump, that's called the tibial tuberosity, if you slide just outside of it, or lateral, you are going to feel a muscle that has a little divot right there. And stimulating that point, stomach thirty six in combination with the point that I mentioned before, pericardium six, is going to help significantly decrease nausea and can even increase hunger at times in that first trimester of pregnancy. Now if any nausea is unrelenting, or it continues for past that first couple of weeks you want to make sure you consult your physician about that. My name is Mark Brinson doctor of Oriental medicine,physical medicine and human performance specialist wishing you a happy, healthy and balanced day."