Acupressure with your HypnoBirthing in Richmond, VA

Back in February I attended an acupressure for birth attendants workshop. This was an amazing opportunity for me to enhance the experience of mothers that I work with. The workshop covered basic Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, locating acupressure points, and protocols for late pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. After my training I began practicing on anyone that would let me, whether they were expecting or not. People would ask “what’s this gonna do to me” and I answered, “help you relax” even though I was thinking to myself: “make your cervix thin and open.” Over the last few months I had the opportunity to practice on a few full-term mamas who were clients of doula friends. They all reported back that they felt like the acupressure helped. Very recently I supported my first birth with a mama that had been receiving before and during birth and I can not wait to use it more!

The training was lead by the fabulous Kieth Bell, LAc who has had amazing results treating all types of women’s health conditions with acupuncture. He is a very talented teacher and acupuncturist. If you need help with any conception or pregnancy related concerns, he is the man for the job!

During the training I learned that pain is a result of stagnant energy in your body and the acupressure works by dispersing the stagnant energy. This does two things. First, it reduces the discomfort sometimes experienced during birth and secondly, it shortens labors. Keith described treating moms with slowed labors who then would rest for a bit and then very quickly open from 2-3 centimeters to complete in a matter of a few hours or even less. I was not as awestruck as the other doulas in the class because I see this with HypnoBirthing moms sometimes too. It seems to me that HypnoBirthing and acupressure use different modalities to provide similar assistance to birthing moms. I am looking forward to supporting many many more mamas with both!