Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine

Acupuncture is often the appointment people look forward to. It asks nothing of you for an hour except that you lie still.

Two practitioners offer it here, each with their own diary. Dr Miranda Myles has practised acupuncture and Chinese medicine for more than twenty years, with women's health, hormones and fertility at the centre of her work. Rebecca Geer is a Doctor of Chinese Medicine who brings Traditional Chinese Medicine together with contemporary research, and is in clinic every day. Between them they see people preparing to conceive, people mid-IVF, people deep in pregnancy, and people recovering from birth. Choose whoever suits you when you book.

It's supportive care rather than a treatment for a diagnosis, and we'll be straightforward with you about what it can and can't do.

What people come in for

Acupuncture at Origia is used mostly as supportive care through fertility treatment, pregnancy and the postpartum period. The most common reasons people book:

• cycle regulation: length, ovulation, pain and premenstrual symptoms
• preconception preparation over three or more months
• support during an IVF cycle, including sessions around embryo transfer
• nausea in the first trimester
• pelvic girdle pain, back pain, carpal tunnel and rib pain later in pregnancy
• poor sleep and restlessness in the third trimester
• conversations about breech positioning, including moxibustion, alongside your obstetrician's advice
• birth preparation in the last few weeks
• postpartum recovery, fatigue and settling back into your body

What a session is actually like

The needles are much finer than the ones you associate with blood tests: closer to a hair than a syringe. Most points are barely felt; some produce a brief dull ache that fades in seconds. If anything is uncomfortable, say so and your practitioner will adjust or remove it.

You'll lie on a heated table, covered, with only the areas being treated exposed. Needles stay in for around twenty to thirty minutes while you rest. Whole appointments run 45 to 60 minutes including the discussion at the start. Most people report feeling deeply relaxed afterwards, and some fall asleep. There's no sedation involved, so you can drive home and get on with your day.

Through an IVF cycle

Many people find acupuncture makes a demanding cycle feel more manageable. The appointments give structure to weeks that otherwise revolve around scans and waiting. Sessions are commonly scheduled during stimulation, close to transfer, and through the two-week wait.

We won't tell you acupuncture improves your chance of a live birth. The research on that question is mixed and honest practitioners say so. What we can say is that many people find it helps with sleep, tension and the physical discomfort of a stimulated cycle, and that it is safe to have alongside your medications. Your practitioner coordinates timing with your fertility team and will never suggest changing anything they've prescribed.

Pregnancy, breech and birth preparation

Acupuncture during pregnancy is adapted carefully by trimester, with certain points avoided at particular stages. For nausea, pain and sleep it's one of the few options available when medication choices are limited.

If your baby is breech, moxibustion, a warming technique used at a point on the little toe, is sometimes discussed from around 34 weeks. It may help, it may not, and any decision about breech management belongs with your obstetrician. Your practitioner will explain what's involved and what the evidence looks like, without overselling it.

In the final weeks, birth preparation sessions focus on rest, calm and readiness rather than trying to bring labour on.

After birth

Postpartum sessions are about recovery: energy, sleep where sleep is possible, tension through the neck and shoulders from feeding, and the general work of coming back to yourself. Babies are welcome in the room.