Acupuncture Helps Mothers Breast Feed
By Susanna Ng
So now not only acupuncture can control pain, it can also help a mother to
have a smooth breast feeding experience. A group of Swedish scientists set out
to compare acupuncture treatment and care interventions for the relief of
inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation, and to investigate the
relationship between bacteria in the breast milk and clinical signs and
symptoms in a randomised, non-blinded, controlled study.
The researchers are from Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of
Helsingborg Hospital and Faculty of Social and Life Sciences,
in Swede.
205 mothers with 210 cases of inflammatory symptoms of the breast during
lactation agreed to participate. The mothers were randomly assigned to one of
three treatment groups, two of which included acupuncture among the care
interventions and one without acupuncture.
All groups were given essential care. Protocols, which included scales for
erythema, breast tension and pain, were maintained for each day of contact with
the breast feeding clinic. A Severity Index (SI) for each mother and each day
was created by adding together the scores on the erythema, breast tension and
pain scales. The range of the SI was 0 (least severe) to 19 (most severe).
Significant differences were found in the mean SI scores on contact days 3
and 4 between the non-acupuncture group and the two acupuncture groups. Mothers
with less favourable outcomes (6 contact days, n=61) were, at first contact
with the midwife, more often given advice on correction of the baby’s
attachment to the breast. An obstetrician was called to examine 20% of the
mothers, and antibiotic treatment was prescribed for 15% of the study
population. The presence of Group B streptococci in the breast milk was related
to less favourable outcomes.
“If acupuncture treatment is acceptable to the mother, this, together with
care interventions such as correction of breast feeding position and babies’
attachment to the breast, might be a more expedient and less invasive choice of
treatment than the use of oxytocin nasal spray,” the researchers wrote.
However, no significant difference was found in numbers of mothers in the
treatment groups, with the lowest possible score for severity of symptoms on
contact days 3, 4 or 5. No statistically significant differences were found
between the treatment groups for number of contact days needed until the mother
felt well enough to discontinue contact with the breast feeding clinic or for
number of mothers prescribed antibiotics.
The researchers add that midwives, nurses or medical practitioners with
specialist competence in breast feeding should be the primary care providers
for mothers with inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation. The use
of antibiotics for inflammatory symptoms of the breast should be closely
monitored in order to help the global community reduce resistance development
among bacterial pathogens.
Journal: Midwifery. 2007 Jun;23(2):184-95. Epub 2006 Oct 18
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