“Acupuncture relieves pelvic pain during pregnancy”, say Swedish researchers

A third of pregnant women suffer pelvic pain, the causes are unknown, but doctors believe the surge in hormones during pregnancy affects muscles and ligaments.

Women can wear a pelvic belt to relieve the pain and do stabilising exercises at home to improve mobility.

But researchers at the Institute for the Health of Women and Children, in Gothenburg, Sweden found acupuncture also helps.

"Acupuncture decreases the pain," says Helen Elden, a midwife at the Institute. Elden and her colleagues compared standard treatment, stabilising exercises and acupuncture on 386 pregnant women. Those who received acupuncture and did the exercises for six weeks reported less pain than the others.

The pain scale was also assessed by an independent examiner.

In a report published online last week by the British Medical Journal, the researchers said: "The findings are of particular importance because no previous study has shown such marked treatment effects among pregnant women with well defined pelvic girdle pain".