Pregnancy asks a great deal of your body. As your baby grows, the muscles, joints, and ligaments that support your pelvis adapt to changing posture, weight, and movement. For some women, these changes lead to pelvic girdle pain—a condition that can make walking, climbing stairs, turning in bed, or even standing on one leg surprisingly difficult.

If you're experiencing pelvic pain during pregnancy, it's important to know that you don't simply have to put up with it until your baby is born.

Acupuncture has been studied extensively as a treatment for pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain. One of the best-known clinical trials followed 386 pregnant women who received either standard care alone, standard care plus acupuncture, or standard care plus stabilising exercises. After six weeks, the women receiving acupuncture experienced greater improvements in pain than those performing stabilising exercises, particularly for pain affecting the sacroiliac joints and pubic symphysis.

These findings are supported by broader research. A Cochrane Review, which analysed 26 clinical trials involving more than 4,000 pregnant women, concluded that acupuncture can reduce pelvic pain and improve function during pregnancy. It also found evidence that acupuncture provided greater pain relief than usual care alone and, in some studies, greater improvements than exercise-based treatment.

Acupuncture is not intended to replace good maternity care or physiotherapy. In fact, many women benefit from a combination of approaches. By reducing pain and improving comfort, acupuncture may make it easier to stay active, continue appropriate exercises, and enjoy the remainder of pregnancy.

Treatment is always tailored to the individual. Alongside addressing pelvic girdle pain, sessions may also help with the other physical demands of late pregnancy, such as muscular tension, poor sleep, or preparing the body for birth.

If pelvic pain is making pregnancy more difficult than it needs to be, I'd be happy to discuss whether acupuncture could be a helpful part of your pregnancy care.

References

Elden H, Ladfors L, Olsen MF, Ostgaard HC, Hagberg H. Effects of Acupuncture and Stabilising Exercises as Adjunct to Standard Treatment in Pregnant Women with Pelvic Girdle Pain: Randomised Single Blind Controlled Trial. BMJ. 2005;330:761.

Liddle SD, Pennick V. Interventions for Preventing and Treating Low-back and Pelvic Pain During Pregnancy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2015 (includes evidence on acupuncture for pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain).