There are so many wonderful phases of being a mother. This month’s focus is on the first part…prenatal. A common ailment that moms suffer with is morning sickness. I recently completed a seminar about the benefits of changing the diet and supporting the liver and gallbladder. It is crucial to keep the liver in its optimal function when creating a new human!

Another helpful and natural modality to morning sickness is acupuncture. Acupuncture in a nutshell is all about qi. Qi is an invisible life force that courses through your body’s twelve meridians. Meridians are highways of energy, and each one is connected to a vital organ which is woven in a circuit with all the other meridians. I’ll try to summarize 2,000 years of acupuncture theory, if one of those meridians gets a “traffic jam” you can expect to experience symptoms. Now, you’re probably thinking what can cause the meridians to get unhealthy? I have three reasons: trauma, thoughts, and toxins. Trauma could be a fall, or even small repetitive daily microtraumas like poor sustained posture over many years. Thoughts are all about emotional stressors… need I say more. Lastly toxins, we experience these through viral attacks, poor diet choices, and environmental pollution.

There are acupuncture diagnosis protocols for morning sickness. Your acupuncturist will determine the treatment by taking a detailed history and complete examination which includes feeling twelve different pulses on both of your wrists and examining your tongue to figure out your pattern.

The first TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) pattern diagnosis is spleen and stomach deficiency. One may experience all or only a few of these symptoms which may include nausea, vomiting of liquid or food immediately after meals, fullness or a distending feeling in the chest, sleepiness, or mental weariness.

The second pattern of disharmony is of the liver and stomach. In this pattern one may have vomiting of bitter liquid, epigastric fullness, hypochondriac pain (pain below the ribs), frequent belching, sighing, mental depression, and dizziness.

Both patterns of morning sickness have similar symptoms and treatments using acupuncture or acupressure. The acu points commonly treated are Ren 12 (ONLY if mom is under 12 weeks pregnant), Pericardium 6 (also used as a common sea sickness point), and Stomach 36 (this point helps reverse the rebellious flow of qi causing morning sickness.)

I hope this blog helps you learn more about natural ways to help morning sickness. I also personally loved to sip on ginger tea to help with morning sickness. It helped me so much that when I was considering names for my first baby girl, I choose Ginger. And yes, she is a little bit spicy in terms of her personality. Chinese Medicine texts refer to ginger as Sheng Jiang. This herb sends its energy into the lung, spleen, and stomach meridians. It tastes spicy and its temperature is warm. It’s wonderful for a mom with a cold stomach that may cause vomiting. Please share this information with a friend that may need help with morning sickness. Our team of health care professionals would be honored to be your family’s wellness center choice.

Happy May,

Dr. Sage