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Acupuncture and exercise can help relieve pelvic
pain during pregnancy, according to Swedish researchers.About
30 percent of pregnant women suffer pelvic pain, usually in
the back. Although doctors are not sure what causes it, they
suspect a surge in hormones during pregnancy affects muscles
and ligaments.
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LONDON, March 18, 2005 (Reuters)
Women can wear a pelvic belt
to relieve the pain and do exercises at home. Stabilising
exercises to improve mobility and strength
is another therapy. But researchers at the Institute for the
Health of Women and Children, in Gothenburg, Sweden found acupuncture
also helps.
"Acupuncture decreases the pain," Helen Elden,
a midwife at the institute, told Reuters.
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.
The researchers said acupuncture and stabilising exercises
are effective complements to standard treatment for pelvic
pain during pregnancy.
"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," the
researchers said in a report published online by the British
Medical Journal.
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