San Francisco Acupuncture Labor Induction Support

Week ~40+

Acupuncture has been used very successfully for thousands of years to support in inducing women who are over-due in their pregnancy. Acupuncture works by stimulating the mother’s body to ready itself for labor.  Needling will encourage the body to naturally release prostaglandins to soften and ripen the cervix for labor, and oxytocin to trigger contractions. Because the body produces its own hormones, and the process in natural, the mother and child will experience a gradual, less-traumatic onset of labor. While these points are avoided throughout most of the pregnancy, they work wonderfully for signaling the body to go into labor at full term. 

Gently needling these specific points on the body can help to reduce the length of labor, prevent overdue births, and accelerate cervical ripening and dilation. Most women who have reached full gestation will need only one to four treatments before labor occurs. According to studies, induction acupuncture is 70-88% effective. Labor typically begins between six and forty-eight hours after a treatment.

Women who have already been receiving pre-birth acupuncture in the third trimester respond more quickly to natural induction support treatments, and often do not even need to receive labor induction support.

Acupuncture for labor induction is recommended in a series of 4 treatments scheduled once a woman is full term or 40 weeks.