Thoughts on Preparing for Labor with Acupuncture & A Personal Message
- saranaacu
- Dec 12, 2025
- 4 min read
by Katie Scarlett, L.Ac.
Sarana Community Acupuncture, December 2025
(If you are clicking in from the newsletter, the blog post starts after Katie's personal message.)
Hello! For those of you who do not know me, I’m Katie and I’m about to be a first time mom! I’m busily preparing to go on maternity leave in January. I am also celebrating my 5 year anniversary as a licensed acupuncturist practicing at Sarana, so this feels like an auspicious time to take a pause and enjoy the beginning of a new life chapter.
It still feels strange to be temporarily stepping away! From December 2020 to 2025, I’ve worked 2 regular weekly acupuncture shifts and a weekly cupping shift. I am also one of the managers at Sarana and the current Chair of the Board of Directors. At Sarana I wear many hats! However, one of the best parts of working at a community acupuncture clinic is our community—including our staff of skilled and caring practitioners, who are always working together to provide the best care to our patients. I know we will continue to do so while I am on leave.
I have been blessed with many patients who have come to my shifts consistently over the years. I want to say thank you and that I will miss you! You make me feel so supported and it’s been a pleasure to treat you. I don't have a specific return date set up, as when I resume my clinical shifts again will depend on a lot of unknown factors with our future baby, but I am hoping to see patients again sometime in the summer or fall of 2026.
I do hope you all continue to support Sarana and come for your weekly, or monthly, acupuncture sessions. I am excited for you to get to know the new staff that have joined our team. They bring with them years of experience, skill, and good-heartedness towards Sarana’s mission of improving access to acupuncture.
Extending my heartfelt gratitude and best wishes to our Sarana Community to for the new year,
-Katie
Thoughts on Preparing for Labor with Acupuncture
To help prepare ourselves for childbirth, my husband and I took a series of hypnobirthing classes. We learned a lot about the ins and outs of labor and delivery in general, plus some theories and helpful techniques to ease fear and anxiety. As an acupuncturist, naturally, one of the things I reflected upon was how acupuncture can facilitate a state of relaxation and how helpful this could be for the preparation process leading up to labor, and during labor. After all, it is well known that acupuncture helps the body and nervous system shift from a sympathetic-dominant state (flight or flight) to a parasympathetic state (rest and digest).
In my hypnobirthing classes (shout out to Brilliant Births), I learned that the goal of hypnosis is to engage with meditation techniques in order to enter into different brain-wave states, the measurable electric oscillations of neurological activity. Our brains produce different types of waves that oscillate within certain ranges of frequencies, depending on what we’re doing. The more active our brains are, the faster the wavelengths. Beta waves are produced when we are very active and thinking. Alpha waves are produced all the time and increase as we sink into states of calm, including day dreaming and light meditation; slower Theta waves are produced during hypnosis, deep meditation, and light sleep; and the slowest Delta waves are produced during deep sleep.
Research measuring brain waves during acupuncture treatment has shown that our brains produce Alpha waves and, to some degree, Theta waves during the course of treatment. (Note: at Sarana we usually play music set to “healing frequencies” to further encourage dropping into these slower brain waves states!) In my experience, as we practice relaxation techniques and learn how they feel for us, including during acupuncture, it becomes easier to return to them. With continued practice, we can learn to use them in times of need, such as when managing stressful or painful situations.
My colleagues and I have supported a number of people, and their partners, as they prepare for the births of their children, one of whom sent me her thoughts on the experience:
“I am so grateful to Sarana for the incredible support I received during my pregnancy. Not only did my regular acupuncture sessions greatly reduce my insomnia and anxiety while pregnant, but they created a baseline of groundedness that I returned to throughout my labor. I also got some relief from reflux and achiness and tips about herbal remedies to strengthen my immunity and hasten my postpartum healing. I felt so cared for by this team and believe that my labor went as well as it did thanks to their attentive support.” -A.B.
As I am now my own test subject, I’ve upped my frequency of weekly treatments from once to 2-3 times a week. I bring my hypnobirthing meditations and affirmations to listen to on headphones during my treatments to help me relax. However, during my last 2 sessions, it took me longer than usual to wind down—so much so that I almost gave up and ended my treatment early! I’ve been so busy getting things done from my to-do list while preparing for my labor and postpartum, that it was hard for me to really let go. Trying to channel what I’ve learned, I decided to stay, focusing on my breath, and finally dropped in after about 20 minutes. Even using these techniques, I’ve still struggled with teaching my body to relax! But, inevitably, the needles helped shift my nervous system into that deeper state of relaxation and I drifted for the remainder of the treatment.
Receiving regular acupuncture is a powerful tool for relaxation, whether you are preparing for childbirth or managing chronic physical and/or emotional pain, or incorporating it into a broader practice of mindfulness and breathing techniques. At Sarana, we are happy to provide you with the time and the space to practice!
Sources
Acupuncture Practices and Brain Waves
The Neuroscience of Hypnosis
