Hi Terra,,

I know this was from a couple of years ago, but I came here to ask the same question. I am 40 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow and as I prepare for L&D, was wondering if anyone had any insight on areas to potentially DN to decrease pain during labor. I’ve been trying to find articles but can’t. I feel like it DNing could potentially be super effective and a waste not to use!!!

I wonder if you were able to use DNing during your labor and what was your experience? Again, i know this post is not recent but hopefully you will see this and remember!

Any insight from others would be helpful as well!

Thanks!!!

Hello! Congratulations for getting to this point!! So, what I found is that my third baby came very quickly and I didn’t have a chance to use dry needling during my labor. Even if I would have had time, unless I had someone to say here is a needle, do you want to use it, my mind wouldn’t have thought of it. With that said, if you have a sunny side up baby and are in back labor, or your hips are killing you then you might want to give it a try on yourself in those areas. I did some needling on my ankles at 40 weeks plus but I don’t think it didn’t anything to urge me toward labor. Last of all and most important, I get terrible leg cramping after the birth and boy did I needle my quads, IT band and accessory muscles. I continue to do those areas regularly as that is where I carry my stress when I am carrying kids around. Hope this helps!! Terra

Hi Ladies,
While I can not relate to your pain 🙂 I loved the post and the sharing of info. We at IDN do not teach to use DN during labor but the principles of reducing inflammation through the use of DN does make sense to address the neuromuscular pain that comes with pregnancy- we do provide the guidelines of DN during pregnancy in the courses- certainly the self needling you did makes sense and as clinicians we can help with reducing the significant stress/inflammation that comes with later stage pregnancy and certainly post-partum.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and would love to hear from others on this topic as it is controversial in many ways.
Frank