Nourishing Mothers After Birth with Acupuncture
Acupuncture For the Fourth Trimester: from delivery to 4 months
“Postpartum is a sacred window – feed her body with warmth, her heart with love, and her spirit with stillness.”
The fourth trimester – the 12 weeks post baby delivery is a unique time. It’s the time when you so desperately need love and support, but your baby needs this too. We know the saying….’you can’t pour from an empty cup’. I would argue that you can. That we do. That mothers and fathers everywhere are pouring from empty cups for years after we’ve had our first child.
In Chinese medicine, historical advice is to wait five years between having children because this is the time it takes to nourish your ‘Jing’. Your life energy. The energy that is drained from you (happily of course!) in pregnancy, birth and nourishing your newborn. And this is from a culture that has incredible support systems in place with prioritising care and support for new mothers!
So five years of support and nourishment to even think about being prepared to conceive again. But we do it without this support and with age gaps less than five years more so than not.
So what if you could do it differently? What if you prioritised your care and support so you can show up as a mother or father more rested, more supported, more calm. What kind of mother or father could you be?
When supported well in the fourth trimester, you can:
- Strengthen mother-baby and father-baby bonds
- Promote long term physical and emotional healing
- Improve breastfeeding outcomes
- Prevent postnatal depletion and mood disorders
- Enjoy more energy
- Have more space to cook healthy foods, prioritise exercise, spend quality time with your partner
Acupuncture can offer a gentle support for healing, rest – physically and emotionally and building energy sources for coping with the increased needs required for nourishing your baby and yourself as well as allowing space to heal, to reset and to talk to someone who understands.
Acupuncture Treatments can focus on:
Physical Support
- Supporting painful uterine involution – the process of the uterus returning to pre-pregnancy size
- Healing of cesarean scars
- Promoting tissue healing
- Reducing inflammation
- Alleviate afterpains, abdominal discomfort
Lactation Support
- Tonify energy and blood to support milk supply
- Unblock stuck energy leading to mastitis and musculoskeletal pain
- Engorgement, oversupply
Hormonal Support
- Support the regulation of post partum hormones
- Manage symptoms from these hormone changes – headaches, night sweats, pain, cramping, fatigue, digestion changes, bleeding or abnormal discharge
- Nourish energy
- Calm nervous system
Emotional Support and Reassurance
Emotional support is one of the most profound services I can offer postpartum. A warm conversation with a mother, a practitioner and a women’s health specialist can validate your experiences and offer a clear perspective when everything feels overwhelming.
Baby’s Health
Chinese Medicine has a unique perspective on supporting baby’s health with treating the mother. We see the child’s health as deeply interconnected with the mother’s physical and emotional state especially while breastfeeding (but also not necessary). Chinese medicine treatments can be done on the mother to support your baby’s health. For example, colic or constipation in a baby, can be treated through supporting the mother’s digestion.
Every time I see these treatments work, I’m amazed at how connected we are to our children and our ability to heal them.
“In the fourth trimester, rest is not indulgence – it is medicine. It replenishes the blood, restores the womb, and anchors the spirit.”
Finally
It can be a hard time to get to appointments. I really do understand. If you can organise your partner, your mum, dad or a friend to come with you and hold your baby while you have one hour to yourself, this would be so beneficial.
You can book an appointment online here and choose Post Partum Treatment Acupuncture Support (Initial Consultation). You will be sent a detailed questionnaire to help me support you in the most tailored way. Please choose the Initial Consultation even if I’ve seen you before because you now have a new health goal and I’d like more time to hear about your birth and plan a specialised treatment for you.
If you have any specific questions about how Acupuncture can support your fourth trimester, please send me an email hello@paigewatersacupuncture.com.au
Kindest,
Paige x
