Can acupuncture help women with morning sickness?
Research published in Birth (March 2002; 29(1):1–9) examined the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating nausea in early pregnancy. The study included 593 women who were less than 14 weeks pregnant.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group received acupuncture at the pericardium 6 (PC6) point. A second group received “sham” acupuncture, consisting of superficial needling at non-acupuncture points. A third group served as controls and received no needling.
Women who received acupuncture experienced significantly less nausea beginning in the second week of the trial compared to the control group. They also reported less dry heaving after the third week of treatment. Women in the sham acupuncture group also showed improvement compared to controls. There was no difference among the groups in the frequency of vomiting.
