Post-Natal Depression
Pregnancy magazines abound with happy “slim” mothers looking adoringly at their newborn babies.  The truth can be very different.  Society and the media exert huge pressure on women, who have had an arduous and often traumatic birth experience, to suddenly bounce back, recover their figures and, worst of all, look ecstatic with their new born child.

For many women giving birth can be a shock.  It can often feel humiliating, invasive and overwhelming. It is unpleasant to consider that there are many women who may have yearned for a baby for so long and yet may feel disconnected from their infant when he or she does arrive.  With this may come a deep sense of failure. 

The deep sense of isolation, often a common symptom of Post-Natal Depression, increases in its intensity.  On the outside, things appear relatively okay and a number of the symptoms of post-natal depression can be masked or explained away as the “baby blues”.  But a more profound loneliness or a sense of being disassociated from the baby is the most difficult to gauge. 

Acupuncture initially helps to relieve the shock and trauma from the body and this reduces the disassociation that the client feels. Further Acupuncture can help to improve the maternal bond with the baby.

In addition to Post-Natal Depression, Acupuncture can help alleviate the following:

• Weight gain
• Haemorrhoids
• Back pain
• Perineal discomfort
• Constipation
• Stasis of urine
• Pain and flatulence following a caesarean section
• Breast engorgement/mastitis
• Insufficient lactation
• Insomnia
• Tiredness and exhaustion.