Acupuncture Administered After Spontaneous Rupture of Membranes at Term Significantly Reduces the Length of Birth and Use of Oxytocin: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Traditional acupuncture theories yield null outcomes: a systematic review of clinical trials

“…Most rationales referred to neurochemical effects [11,12,14,17,18,20e22,24,31,32,38,41e43, 45,52,55,57,59,60,63,71,73,75,79,83], but also autonomic regulation [10,22,30,39], neuromuscular [40,70], or other neuromodulating effects [16,46,49,50] …”

“…Ten of these studies had rationales [14,18,21,22,24,45,50,55,59,75] but any rationale was largely unnecessary to differentiate acupuncture from nonacupuncture controls. Statistically significant differences in effects were observed in 18 studies (82%) ( Table 1) in which acupuncture was added to usual care [21,22,24,36,47,50,56,59,75e78] or compared to an alternate treatment [14,18,29,58,68] or no acupuncture [45].…”

Effects of LI-4 and SP-6 Acupuncture on Labor Pain, Cortisol Level and Duration of Labor

“…Different mechanisms were hypothesized to explain the effect of acupuncture on initiation of labor, one of which is increasing oxytocin secretion from anterior pituitary gland and thalamic nuclei. In support of this view, Gaudernack et al [15,16] suggested that acupuncture decreases the oxytocin requirement to induce labor. Notably, shortening the active phase of labor can decrease fatal complications such as low Apgar score, nerve injury, infections, and maternal complications including puerperal infection and postpartum hemorrhage [17].…”

L’acupuncture autour de la naissance : bases scientifiques et état des lieux

“…La durée de travail a été réduite de manière statistiquement significative (différence moyenne de 1,7 heures, p = 0,03) ainsi que l'utilisation d'ocytocine dans le groupe acupuncture comparé au groupe témoin. Par ailleurs, le groupe acupuncture avait une durée significativement plus courte de la phase active du travail que celle du groupe témoin (différence moyenne de 3,6 h ; p = 0,002) [18].…”