Acupuncture in the management of pain in labor

Performance of acupuncture as labor analgesia in the clinical setting

“…This study supports the findings in the three previously reported randomized controlled trials (1–3) of acupuncture as an analgesic during labor. In a randomized controlled trial of acupuncture, it is difficult to completely rule out a placebo effect, either directly on the woman or mediated through the midwife, when sham acupuncture is used in the controls.…”

“…Three randomized controlled trials have shown that acupuncture during labor can reduce the use of epidural analgesia and meperidine (1–3), one of them by us (2). A systematic review concluded that acupuncture as an adjunct to conventional pain control during labor is promising, but that there still is a paucity of trial data (4).…”

Effects of noninvasive electroacupuncture on labour pain and duration

“…, Skilnand et al . ). TENS was used to stimulate acupuncture points for pain relief during labour in the study of Chao et al .…”

“…On the other hand, some studies reported that stimulations made on the acupuncture points shortened labour duration significantly (Skilnand et al . , Chung et al . , Lee et al .…”

The effects of acupuncture during labour on nulliparous women: A randomised controlled trial

“…One of the areas of research has been the evaluation of its application in the treatment of the labour pain 7–10 . To our knowledge, at the time of writing, three small‐scale, uncontrolled studies and at least three randomised clinical trials have reported efficacy of acupuncture in reducing labour pain 11–15 . All those three controlled trials were conducted in Scandinavia (Norway and Sweden) and acupuncture treatment was used as an adjunctive therapy.…”