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Insufficient Lactation Case

Last week I saw a woman who was having difficulty with nursing.  She was 2 1/2 weeks postpartum.  She brought her beautiful daughter with her which was such a treat!  Then her husband took the baby so we could have some good time to look at what was going on.

After a good birth a bit after term, her baby had difficulty latching on.  The days of effort left the mom’s nipples feeling very raw and painful.  It’s much easier on the nipples when a baby really latches on.  But, she also felt that her baby was frustrated because the milk supply was not robust.  Since the birth she had not felt any sensation of fullness in the breast nor any sense of let-down.  She began to supplement with formula some to make sure her daughter was getting enough and also pumped to keep what milk she had available for the baby.  She was worried that her daughter would get so used to the ease of the bottle that she might not want to nurse any more at all.

Why was there not enough milk?  It’s normal for the postpartum woman’s breasts to be engorged with milk and for the let-down to allow milk to flow […]

By |2019-11-14T11:22:34-08:00November 14th, 2019|Adjunctive Therapies, Classic Formulas, Obstetrics, Qiu Xiaomei|0 Comments
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Guest Post: Birth Basics Class

Guest Post by Claudia Citkovitz

I’ll be there!

Save the date!  Birth Basics Class has arrived.

My book, Acupressure, and Acupuncture during Birth won’t be out until December 19, but I’ll be teaching all the content (and then some) here at White Pine Healing Arts on September 28-29, 2019.

The class will cover needle and bodywork approaches for everything from labor preparation and prenatal homework through the three stages of labor and postpartum care.  In particular, we will look at the roles of Yin, Yang, Qi, and Blood in birth, and the effects of stagnation and deficiency on contractions, dilatation, and descent of the baby through the pelvis.

Suitable for non-acupuncturists such as doulas and midwives, students learn to recognize the faces of yin and yang, as they manifest and shift throughout the course of labor and delivery. Using a clinical problem-solving approach, you will learn to assess balance and flow from labor preparation through the postpartum period and use acupressure, bodywork, auriculotherapy, and moxibustion to support and encourage healthy labor. Acupuncturists taking the course will learn a full range of needling and non-needling techniques, suitable for even the most conservative hospitals. Non-acupuncturist birth professionals will come away with a powerful but manageable toolbox of new techniques for helping moms with breech, oligohydramnios and polyhydramnios, IUGR and other […]

By |2019-08-13T05:25:32-07:00August 12th, 2019|Acupuncture, Adjunctive Therapies, Books, Gynecology, Obstetrics|0 Comments
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Seeing the Doctor in Taiwan

IMG_2196Other than the visit to the KPC factory, I had a couple of other interesting medical adventures while visiting Taiwan.  One is that I went to see the doctor for a chronic cough I experience.  We were visiting a city called Chiayi and found a small herb shop while we were wandering around.  There was a young (looking) doctor there to Ba Mai, meaning to feel pulses, meaning to see patients.  So, I decided to see what he could offer me.

2015-12-12 15.27.22 My nearly fluent daughter

We did the intake (with my nearly fluent daughter helping us communicate as her Chinese is SO much better than mine).  I decided to get the herbs in a powder form since I was traveling and couldn’t cook them up for a while.

I remember reading a blog post by Michael Max several years ago in which he described doctors in Taiwan prescribing powder formulas as single herbs.  The doctor I saw did the same thing.  He gave me 3 different formulas along with some other herbs and each formula was dosed as a single herb.  The formulas he gave me were Huo Xiang Zheng Qi San, Zi Su San and Xuan Fu Dai Zhe Tang.

Another interesting thing was […]

By |2017-12-29T19:00:15-08:00December 19th, 2015|Adjunctive Therapies|0 Comments
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Placenta Encapsulation: A Traditional Chinese Medicine for Post-Partum Healing

My personal experience has been nearly 100% positive, with mothers reporting feeling strong, bleeding times shortened, milk supply coming in full, and an overall sense of well-being. The clearest evidence, though, has come to me from second-time mothers who report feeling so much stronger and in control, even with a toddler to run around after in addition to the newborn. The placenta can easily be combined with a customized herbal treatment to provide the mother with full post-partum recovery.

By |2017-12-29T17:13:06-08:00December 27th, 2013|Adjunctive Therapies, Experiential Formulas, Gynecology, Obstetrics|3 Comments
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My Sprained Ankle… Healed with 7-star hammer

Below is a little movie clip of me using the 7-star hammer on my ankle to draw blood…read on.   Two days ago I went out riding alone on my Connemara mare, Dellah.  It was a spectacular spring day.  She’s got some “issues” out on the trail that I’ve been slowly attempting to help her with by building her confidence.  She gets flustered easily by things like flowing water, white maple syrup buckets, bicycles, and all manner of imaginary threats.  She was going great until we came to the Roaring Brook River.  She’s crossed it many times before and would have had no trouble if another horse had been in front of her.  We began to cross and, as she moved quickly to the other side, she got flustered, moving quickly to the left and then quickly to the right .  I felt my ankle twist in the stirrup and found myself on the ground on the other side of the river.  Bummer!

It was my right ankle so I could easily remount and I decided I wanted to finish my ride.  It was also better for her for me to not make a big deal out of […]

By |2017-12-29T20:10:50-08:00April 16th, 2012|Adjunctive Therapies|5 Comments
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