Qiu Xiaomei

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 […]

Bad Flu causes Scary Bleeding

This was an intense case in which the patient really did not want to go to the hospital. I had to both support this wish while making sure she was remaining safe. It is important to allow for the possibility that my skills may not be enough! I find it important to make agreements with patients in cases like this such as - after an agreed upon period of time or if symptoms get worse, they will go to the ER. Without this, I am not comfortable working with these kinds of crises. On the other hand, with this kind of clear communication, it is great to see what the herbs can do.

Postpartum Care Continued…

In my clinic I have treated women who have contracted various illnesses, like fever, during the postpartum period. It is presupposed that one always differentially diagnoses in order to seek the cause and determines treatment upon examining the cause. At all times I pay attention to and give aid to the righteous Qi. Especially after the evil has retreated it is even more important to do such things as nourishing the blood and boosting the Qi, using banking up and supplementing methods.

Dysmenorrhea: Cold Causes Pain

Think of a child swimming in cold water and how they start to shiver and develop blue-purple lips, fingers and toes. I have a small spring fed pond behind my clinic. The water is very cold all year round. If I dip my feet into it, within 2 minutes they start to ache. Cold causes blood stasis and this blood stasis causes pain. However, as soon as the child is warmed up, the lips, fingers and toes turn pink again!

What is Heat in the Blood Chamber?

Dr. Qíu Xiào-méi

I recently gave a talk on Medigogy as a way to introduce the course I am giving in Vancouver in January on bleeding disorders in women. During the class a student/practitioner asked what I meant by “heat in the blood chamber” as a cause of bleeding.  So, I thought I would write a bit about this and share a couple of cases.  If you are interested in watching the 1 hour medigogy talk it is available here.

We all know that heat can induce the blood to run reckless.  However, because there are many reasons for heat to develop, there are many methods for clearing heat in order to stop bleeding.

It is very important to differentiate the cause of the pathological heat so that the method hits the mark.

In Dr. Qíu Xiào-méi’s case below, we can see that the patient was treated improperly with several clearing heat methods before the patient came to Dr. Qiu.  She recognized the cause of bleeding as heat in the blood chamber.  Once she did, a long term condition resolved quickly.

I started with a case from my own practice to help illustrate this important concept.

Before going to the cases let’s look at the patho-mechanisms of heat in the blood chamber as well as the key […]

By |2017-12-29T19:58:11-08:00December 12th, 2011|Gynecology, Our Courses, Qiu Xiaomei|1 Comment

Using The Finger Pulse During Birth

To continue on the theme of birthing, I was recently editing video from the last Graduate Mentorship Program.  The video I am currently working on is from the part of the program on pregnancy and labor. I was reminded about Dr. Qiu Xiao-mei’s use of the “finger pulse” as a diagnostic tool during labor.  It can give the doctor a reading on the woman’s readiness to give birth, the dilation of the cervix and the strength behind the contractions.  I have translated and read case studies in which the finger pulse is used but I had never read anything in particular about it’s meaning or how to do it.  I decided to do a bit of a query to some knowledgable friends of mine.  I got a lengthy reply from Steven Clavey.  He sent me a descriptive passage in Chinese that I translated this morning as well as a diagram and a few words of his own.  I’ve included all this here and have also added a couple of cases of Dr. Qiu Xiao-mei to illustrate her use of the finger pulse.  In the first case the finger pulse was weak and this indicated to Dr. Qiu that a strong tonification method was necessary.  In the second […]

By |2011-05-14T11:12:50-07:00May 14th, 2011|Famous Doctors, Obstetrics, Qiu Xiaomei|6 Comments
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