339: Acupuncture or acupressure may relieve pain in labour

November 04, 2011

PEARLS 339, written by Brian R McAvoy

Clinical question: How effective are acupuncture (needles) and acupressure (fingers and hands) for pain management in labour?

Bottom line: Single or limited numbers of trials reported less intense pain, increased satisfaction with pain relief and reduced use of analgesic drugs with acupuncture compared with placebo or usual care. Acupressure also reduced pain intensity. The intervention was administered at term, as individualised treatment (6 trials) or at standardised acupuncture points in the majority of trials; but with wide variation in the mode of stimulation, duration of needling, number of points used, depth of needling and duration of the trial.

Caveat: There were insufficient data to demonstrate whether acupuncture and acupressure were more effective than a placebo control, or whether there was additional benefit from acupuncture when used in combination with usual care. The risk of bias was high in the majority of trials and recommendations for the practice cannot be made until further high quality research has been undertaken.

Context: Many women would like to avoid pharmacological or invasive methods of pain management in labour and this may contribute towards the popularity of complementary methods of pain management such as acupuncture or acupressure.

Cochrane Systematic Review: Smith CA et al. Acupuncture or acupressure for pain management in labour. Cochrane Reviews, 2011, Issue 7. Article No.: CD009232. DOI: 10.1002/14651858. CD009232.
This review contains 13 studies involving 1986 participants.

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care

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Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.