Anxiety can have have a detrimental impact on women during pregnancy and birth, yet it often goes undetected or untreated. Chinese Medicine practitioner Rebecca Mar Young shares 5 pieces of advice for discovering hidden anxiety, and treating it using holistic measures such as acupressure.
Interested in supporting women through pregnancy, birth and the postpartum both physically and emotionally? Become a doula!
Anxiety can be incredibly debilitating, and sometimes a woman may not even know that she is anxious. It can be a tricky one. Sometimes it’s not picked up during pregnancy and then rears its frightening head during birth and postnatally.
So what can you do to help a woman in your care to manage anxiety?
1) Talk to her regularly about how she’s feeling.
Ask if this is her first, second or third pregnancy. How were her previous pregnancies and births? Has she had any miscarriages? How did she feel about any past experiences?
Often, trauma surrounding miscarriage and birth can be unprocessed, so if it seems that may be the case for your client, there are a few options to consider. If you are skilled and trained, then you might make some time to talk to her, or offer her support to find some counseling.
2) Take a deeper look.
Sometimes, a woman may not realize she is anxious, but it shows up in other symptoms, such as in poor sleep, palpitations or changes in bowel habits. So taking a thorough history of what is going on for her in that moment is important – she will often say that sleep hasn’t been great these past months, when before it was fine. These signs can indicate unconscious anxiety and are worth exploring further. Again, counseling may be appropriate, or you may suggest other avenues to address anxiety, including acupuncture.
3) Encourage her to take time to care for her self.
Ask her how often is she resting during the day? Is she taking any time for herself that’s just for her – not tending to other children or people or work? Walking, taking a bath, meditating, reading a book, or doing prenatal yoga are all important activities to fill up her cup so she can feel more relaxed and grounded.
4) Explore the possibility of a medical condition.
Medical conditions such as anemia can indicate underlying anxiety, so of course investigate the known medical causes, too.
5) Utilize Chinese Medicine techniques to help calm anxiety.
Chinese medicine has some powerful acupressure points to help, and thankfully they are easy to use. You may suggest she try some acupressure to help calm her mind and regulate her autonomic nervous system.
There is a brilliant point on the bottom of your foot called KD-1. This point is the start of the Kidney channel.
The Kidneys are seen as the foundation of life in Chinese medicine, governing the reproductive and endocrine systems. The emotion relating to the Kidneys is fear. You need strong Kidneys to conceive, to carry a baby to term and to birth well. Signs that one’s Kidneys are weak include the inability to conceive, early greying of hair, dull lower back pain and sore achy knees.
Pressing this point firmly on the bottom of her foot will help to ground her mind, reconnecting it with her body. The point will enable her to feel as though she is more solidly within herself. Many of the midwives who have learned this point attest to how beautifully it works at calming and grounding their clients, particularly during times of anxiety during birth.
How to find the point: It is located on the sole of the foot, between the second and third metatarsal bones, approximately one third of the distance between the base of the second toe and the heel, in the depression formed when the foot is plantar flexed.
Have your lady hold this point herself or better still, get her to ask her partner to do it and to hold it for a good three minutes on either foot. Another way they can get some good pressure on the point is if they roll their foot on a small ball or even a marble and then she can get the pressure she needs simply by standing.
Chinese medicine can also address some deeper issues that can cause anxiety. We understand anxiety to be a type of deficiency in her body, or as energy that has become stuck. Acupuncture can be brilliant at addressing these underlying factors whilst regulating the nervous system, and can bring about more immediate and also longer term relief.
How to find the point: It is located on the sole of the foot, between the second and third metatarsal bones, approximately one third of the distance between the base of the second toe and the heel, in the depression formed when the foot is plantar flexed.
Have your lady hold this point herself or better still, get her to ask her partner to do it and to hold it for a good three minutes on either foot. Another way they can get some good pressure on the point is if they roll their foot on a small ball or even a marble and then she can get the pressure she needs simply by standing.
Chinese medicine can also address some deeper issues that can cause anxiety. We understand anxiety to be a type of deficiency in her body, or as energy that has become stuck. Acupuncture can be brilliant at addressing these underlying factors whilst regulating the nervous system, and can bring about more immediate and also longer term relief.
There are many more acupressure points to help with symptoms throughout pregnancy, preparing for birth and minimising pain during birth. To find out about these and so much more, consider joining our free online Bumps Births Babies Holistic Health Conference, March 23–28, 2015. Rebecca and Naomi will be speaking more deeply about acupressure and the benefits during pregnancy and birth, whilst giving you some points to use in your clinical practice straight away.
Rebecca Mar Young and Naomi Abeshouse Benko are the Red Tent Mums. They run the Red Tent Mums Health Centre in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australia, where they primarily treat pregnant women and mums through the use of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Rebecca is a mother of two and Naomi is a mother of one with one little newbie on the way.
They are hosting a FREE ONLINE conference March 23–28 2015 called Bumps Births Babies Holistic Online Conference. They will be talking to the likes of Debra Pascali-Bonaro from Orgasmic Birth, Pinky McKay, Gail Tully from Spinning Babies and much more (there are 21 interviews and 15 speakers). You can read all about it and sign up to join here.
Rebecca Mar Young and Naomi Abeshouse Benko are the Red Tent Mums. They run the Red Tent Mums Health Centre in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australia, where they primarily treat pregnant women and mums through the use of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Rebecca is a mother of two and Naomi is a mother of one with one little newbie on the way.
They are hosting a FREE ONLINE conference March 23–28 2015 called Bumps Births Babies Holistic Online Conference. They will be talking to the likes of Debra Pascali-Bonaro from Orgasmic Birth, Pinky McKay, Gail Tully from Spinning Babies and much more (there are 21 interviews and 15 speakers). You can read all about it and sign up to join here.