Acupuncture Delivers !

An exciting new project is underway involving Whittington Hospital and Asante Academy of Chinese Medicine. The Maternity Unit at Whittington Hospital is offering Acupuncture to their patients in a unique and groundbreaking service. Practitioners from the Asante Academy of Chinese Medicine have been invited into the hospital to provide acupuncture to women in the ante-natal and day labour wards.

The concept was born after Dr Amali Lokugamage , a consultant obstetrician in the unit, who had been offering acupuncture herself, became unable to fulfil the demand.

Dr Lokugamage says "Acupuncture can be very effective in helping a wide range of symptoms associated with pregnancy. This service is able to provide drug-free intervention in the treatment of nausea and vomiting, pain and stress and repositioning of the foetus, and during labour itself can help improve contractions, alleviate pain and anxiety, and expedite the birth."

The project has begun as a three month pilot scheme with Asante practitioners generously offering their services for free.

Dr Lokugamage says, "One of our aims is to see if an Acupuncture service like this can reduce the caesarean rates as well as providing pregnant women with wider choice of treatments to support them during their pregnancy and labour."

This project is an example of how complementary medicine can integrate effectively with western medicine within the NHS. Asante Academy of Chinese Medicine is at the forefront of promoting such projects, and has established several successful partnerships with NHS establishments, including pain clinics at Whittington and North Middlesex hospitals.

Dr Song Ke, Asante's director, says "My hope is that more NHS hospitals will see the benefits of being able to offer their patients complementary medicine alternatives. I hope this scheme helps to open the door to similar projects in the future."

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