The safety of acupuncture during pregnancy: a systematic review.

Park J, Sohn Y, White AR, Lee H.
Acupunct Med.2014 Jun; 32(3): 257-66.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/acupmed-2013-010480

Acupuncture may be considered safe for pregnant women, according to a recent review.

The systematic review, by Park et al. (2014), reports that acupuncture is rarely associated with adverse events in studies involving pregnant women. Only 1.3 percent of treatments reported adverse events rated as certain, probable, or possible to have been caused by acupuncture (291 adverse events in 22,283 treatments). Results were published in the June 2014 issue ofAcupuncture in Medicine.

Authors’ electronic literature searches identified 105 trials that met inclusion and exclusion criteria, of which 25 trials (in 27 reported) described adverse events. Of the events reported, acupuncture was most commonly associated with mild adverse events like needling pain and local bleeding. Acupuncture was unlikely to be associated with serious adverse events or death.

The authors write, “This systematic review found that adverse events associated with acupuncture during pregnancy are generally mild, and serious adverse events are rare. The present findings should be given to pregnant women together with effectiveness data so that they can make an informed decision.”

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