Labor induction with Acupuncture and Moxa

Goal: Labor induction & related anxiety and pain.

Problem area: No signs of labor. Anxiety (re: birth). Pain (lower back). Patient prefers nature therapy over medication or surgery

Prior conditions: Baby one week past due; MD decide to induce after 1 week.

Current Medication/Prior treatments:

Reference: DB, early 30s

Notes: Most never tried acupuncture before.

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This week, I have a patient who choose for acupuncture induction because her previous baby had difficulties of delivery. This time, her baby is one week past the due day and she does not want to have medication or surgery. I did one session and her baby was delivered the next day.

Patients come to my office for labor induction mostly have several scenarios:
1) Past due for more than 6 days
2) Have concerns over the medication used for induction
3) Have concerns over the surgery and side effects
4) Big baby and wish to deliver as earlier as possible prior or after due date
5) Previous experience of difficult labor
6) Doctors referrals

My experience and understanding..
1) most of my patients start labor / contraction after several acupuncture visits to my office2) the results are good when your body is close to ready.  There is not a specific timeframe that women go into labor post-treatment.  I would recommend starting at least 4 days prior to a scheduled-induction and you may need average to 4 treatments on consecutive days. 
3) generally the bigger the baby is above average, the more times the acupuncture needs. Even though some of patents needs 1 or 2 visits might be enough, most needs 4 times. I have one patient who took 9 days of treatment before going into labor. So be patient and let acupuncture work through. 
4) half of my patients come because they past due date for one week. Their doctor considers induction or C-section after 2 weeks. So they would rather choose nature therapy first.
5) it is nature that some has insomnia or anxiety. Acupuncture can also help relieve.
6) once patient starts having labor. I would stop using acupuncture and let the nature run the course.
7) if patient has difficulty of labor, start acupuncture earlier on the due date.