Dr. Oroma Nwanodi
Medical Doctor
Title: Labor Pain Treated with Acupuncture or Acupressure. An Update from 2016
Biography
Biography: Dr. Oroma Nwanodi
Abstract
Acupuncture and acupressure facilitate natural labor or reduced intrapartum narcotic analgesia use. Acupuncture and acupressure may be excluded from professional association practice recommendations for obstetric analgesia and anesthesia as nonpharmacologic treatment modalities. Nonetheless, in light of the prescription drug abuse milieu, acupuncture and acupressure as non-pharmacological labor pain management (NPLPM) are especially recommended for laboring patients. The current literature suggests a place for sequential obstetric acupuncture and acupressure use: Acupuncture to enhance cervical ripening, followed by noninvasive electro-acupuncture (EA) or acupressure for labor pain reduction and labor duration shortening. Bilateral acupressure at LI4 applied twice during active labor can significantly reduce visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores post intervention (p < 0.0001) and labor length (p < 0.05). Despite a trend from 1995 through 2014 of acupuncture research focusing on pain, pregnancy, and labor, with increased randomized controlled trials (RCTs), additional larger RCTs are needed to assure continued EA and acupressure use as NPLPM.