The University of Maryland School of Medicine published a study in the British medical journal, BMJ which says acupuncture may help women get pregnant. To be most effective, they say acupuncture should be done right before or after embryos are placed in the womb. The study was based on 1,366 women in the U.S., Germany, Australia and Denmark who are having in vitro fertilization. The article from USA Today says this:

Individually, only three of the studies found acupuncture beneficial, three found a trend toward benefit and one found no benefit. When results of these smaller studies were pooled, researchers found that the odds of conceiving went up about 65% for women given acupuncture.

Experts say that there is still a lot of research that needs to be done, but also say that while the benefit of acupuncture still needs more studying, there's never been anything to show that it's harmful--so why not give it a try? Have any of you ever done acupuncture in hopes of getting pregnant? Did it work?

Labels: parenting, pregnancy, study