Acupuncture for morning sickness

[spinaltap]

Has anyone tried it? Did it work? Did it take loads of sessions to have an effect?

I spoke to the doctor earlier this week about what I could do about my morning sickness. He wasn't keen to prescribe me anything unless I really wanted it, and he was pretty cynical about acupuncture. However I have a lively 2 year old to try to entertain and I'm not even 6 weeks yet and really struggling.

I'm tempted to try acupuncture but I'm pretty skint so if it's a waste of time and money maybe I should just ask for the drugs instead. What do you reckon?

Hi Spinal, unfortunately it seems that acupuncture works for some people and not for others. I had it around week 10 having had debilitating nausea and vomitting from 6 weeks - I found that it helped a lot with the nausea which allowed me to get through a day at work, but I still threw up most mornings. However I found that it only lasted about 3/4 days so I had to have it twice a week which was starting to get expensive in Central London. I've heard that some GP surgeries offer it so it might be worth asking your GP if he/she knows anywhere where you can get it courtesy of the NHS. I used to go during lunch hour so perhaps it was the 20 min lie down that helped!

Like a lot of people I was keen to avoid drugs but I think for future pregnancies I'm going to just embrace the medical route - there are a lot of drugs out there that have been tried and tested for years and whilst they can't do clinical trials on pregnant women for ethical reasons, they are considered very safe in practice.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Bumpity, I wondered if that might be the case - I can't afford to have it done that often and I'd have to find someone to look after my toddler as well. I'll have a chat with the person i know who offers it and see what she says.

I asked the doctor about prescribing it on the NHS and he said definitely not!

I might still go down the drugs route, it was the doctor that put me off, and having had a missed miscarriage before I'm wary of anything that might be risky, which the doc implied the drugs might be. Hmm.

Hi, I started having acupuncture in week 10 as was being sick up to 3 times a day and felt awful. I have had 2 sessions now and it has really improved my nausea and how I feel generally but I am still being sick. I am sick much less often though so it's worth it as far as I'm concerned. I have also been able to eat more. I was prescribed the drugs but after looking them up decided not to risk it.

Not sure about acupuncture but reflexology def helped me.
I didn't believe in all that stuff beforehand and went along with because I was desperate and was totally surprised.
I would have a treatment once a week and have at least 3 vomit free days afterwards.
Would def recommend it

I didn't know reflexology was good for morning sickness too. That's good to know as I know someone who does it. I'm keen to give both a try now and see what works. Even if they only work for a few days I could time it for when I know I've got stuff on. I'll investigate tomorrow and get something booked.
Thanks

Same experience as others. Acupuncture definitely seemed to reduce my sickness, I went from being sick 4-5 times a day to just first thing. But I was having 2 sessions a week to start with, dropping to one after a couple of weeks. I stopped at 12 weeks and thankfully this time my sickness appears to have tailed off, I was sick every single day of my first pregnancy, barring the shortish period I was on cyclizine.

Had I been able to get the cyclizine this time I would have gone for it. But I wasn't getting much sympathy from the medical world and didn't have the ketones to prove I was sick enough.

It didn't work for me, and the acupuncturist "dismissed" me after three sessions, saying she didn't think she could do anything more for me and i should keep my money. I was in hospital with hyperemisis within 24 hours though, so I don't think I am typical.

I was had really bad hyperemisis abd was in hospital at week 9 and then again in week 12, after being off work for about 9 weeks I decided to try acupuncture, by that point I was willing to try anything.... It really worked for me, I felt loads better, I had 3 sessions and then managed to go back to work and didn't have any more sessions.

I would definitely recommend it good luck, there is nothing worse in the world than morning sickness!

I really feel for you guys with hyperemesis - I definitely don't have that, but what I do have is shitty enough, so being worse than this must be horrendous!

Yes Spinal! 2 pgs, collectively 6 admissions to hospital, 7 weeks in hospital, 1 million canulas, 16 weeks off work - and 2 healthy, happy babies! But stopping at 2!!!!!

Hope it passes for you soon. In my less bad days, I found that ice lollies, fizzy water and Mini Cheddars helped.

I just had acupuncture! I wouldn't say I feel massively better but my stomach does feel calmer and the nausea is slightly better. Something has definitely changed.
Feel sleepy though. It'll be interesting to see how I feel this evening and tomorrow morning as first and last thing are my worst times.
I think I'll probably have another session and I'd recommend others give it a go.

I carried on with acupuncture after getting pregnant (I was having the acupuncture for fertility help) and it did help with minimising nausea, reducing stress, helped my backache and headaches. It is a personal thing. Reflexology can work well for others - they work on similar pressure points, esp for the anti nausea points.

Definitely the lying down (and just getting sleep in general) helps!

Didn't work for me I'm afraid. I had three sessions and was violently sick as soon
As I got off the bed after the second session.
TbH, none of the medications worked for me either (tried cyclizine, ondansetron, stemetil).
I just had to ride it out til week 20. Hope yours isnt so bad.

I would add though that I think anything is worth trying! HG is the pits and if acupuncture works for some, it might work for you (I was just unlucky!).