Homeopathic Birth Preparation

I love working with women to prepare them to get pregnant, help them during pregnancy and birth - and then treat the baby with healthy medicine from day one. Here in Norway I am running a fertility and pregnancy clinic, where we do give homeopathy to all our patients, and we also give acupuncture treatment and nutrition advice. In this article I will focus on preparation for birth with homeopathic treatment. I give all my patients constitutional remedy. But I also can provide specific remedy before birth, and this article will be more of that. Many of my patients have shorter length of birth, than the regular ones. When the births take less time, there are also less complications. Besides giving homeopathy, I teach all my patients about breathing deeply during labour. And between labours, advice my patients to move around, for example walk or dance slowly.

Bellis perennis - pelvic pains

If the pregnant women have pelvic pains during the pregnancy, it is often because of stiffness. It can be difficult to walk, and they often feel the pain in the sacrum in one of the sides or both sides, or they feel pain in the pubis. It is important to loose up this stiffness, so the birth can be easier. This is probably more common in the Scandinavian culture. In many of my cases in the clinic I have then given Bellis perennis c30, twice a day for a week. If the pain is still there after a week, I will change the remedy. If the patients feel better, I tell them to stop taking the remedy, but to continue if the pain comes back.

Caulophyllum - preparing to birth

Caulophyllum is the classical remedy to use before birth. It makes the uterus strong, and during birth it can make the labour become more regular. If you give Caulophyllum in higer potency, it can reduce some of the labour pains. But before birth, I use low potency as C12 twice a day to prepare the uterus for labour. Some women can have very painful labour in the beginning of the birth. The contractions can come often, maybe every second minute, or every minute, but the contractions do not open the cervix. If you give Caulophyllum C12 few weeks before birth, I do not see this happen. If the placenta is stuck and is not delivered after the baby is born. Then Caulphyllum C200 given every 10 minutes, can help the uterus to contract and the placenta comes out. And that is worth a try. If you give Caulophyllum C12 before birth, and the pregnant woman is getting more of the false labour, then stop giving the remedy. If you give Caulophyllun during birth (I almost always do), the birth can be shorten by 90 minutes. A study from 1993 shows this.

Pulsatilla - softening the cervix

In Norway, and I guess the rest of the world, the hospital induce the birth if the pregnancy is 10 days over due time. I have been told by midwives, that especially the Norwegians have a tendency to have longer pregnancies, than women from the Mediterranean countries. So I had to learn how to make the cervix ripe more quickly to help my Norwegian patients. If you give Pulsatilla C200 three times a day for a period of two days, before the pregnant women is going to the hospital to induce the birth. She will experience “menstruation” pains, and this is the softening of the cervix. I am so happy every time this is happening, because is will be easier to induce the birth at the hospital. The midwife can then feel that the cervix is soft. When the cervix is soft is is much easier to induce the birth. Pulsatilla is also good to give in the beginning of the birth, when the labour is irregular. The remedy makes better and more regular contractions. If it is a breech baby, you can turn the baby around by giving Pulsatilla. A baby that has moved around in the womb, and has stayed in the breech positions for a shorter time, is easier to turn with Pulsatilla. If the baby has been with is bottom down for a long time, you maybe need to look for another remedy. Sometimes a pregnant woman has anxiety that something bad will happen to the baby during birth. Then a dose with Pulsatilla can calm her.

Natrium muriaticum - let go

Many of my patients have been struggling to get pregnant, and they have this fear that something bad can happen during pregnancy and birth. Some are afraid to become a mother. Some are afraid to not connect emotionally with the baby. They can find it difficult to go through this transformation into motherhood. During the birth these women can tense up, and prolong the birth. The mothers tend to “hold back” the birth process. If you then give Natrium muriaticum in a high potency, it helps the women to emotionally let go. The women become more relaxed, and the birth process continues. Also during the birth, if the cervix does not open as it should, then a high dose with Natrium muriaticum can help to open the cervix. It seems that sometimes if pregnant women is scared of giving birth, it can affect the unborn babies to go in a breech position. Then Natrium muriaticum can help to turn the babies out of the breech position, and the pregnant women will feel more relaxed about the birth. So Natrium muriaticum is a wonderful remedy to give before or during birth.

Arnica - the birth remedy

What a good remedy to use during birth! Arnica is known to get down the swelling in the tissue when you have been hit by something. If you are a man, or a woman that have not been giving birth before, I can promise you that your vagina will feel very bruised and swollen. But the nice thing is that if you give Arnica C200 every hour during birth, this swelling will be reduced. I remember a patient of me, who got examined by the doctor after birth. The doctor, asked my patient, “Are you sure you have had a vaginal birth?”. The doctor could not see that her vagina has gone through a birth! That is how well the work of Arnica is! An other side, is that the bleeding get less, if you give Arnica during birth. It is a good RCT study with Arnica and Bellis perennis, with shows that the homeopathic remedies reduced the bleeding. My last patient that gave birth this week in the company of her a doula (birth assistant), and the doula told me quite amazed that the patient hardly bleed. After birth this remedy can be good for the “after pain”, when the uterus is contracting to get back to the original size. I then give Arnica C200 tree times a day for three days, and twice a day for tree days more.

Complex remedy

It has been a good study in 1987 “Homeopathic Medicines in Pregnancy and Labour” that was published in Cahiers de Biotherapie. In this randomised double blind trial involving 93 women where giving a combination of Caulophyllum, Actea racemosa, Arnica, Pulsatilla and Gelsemium all in C5 potency. It was used to determine its effect on the length of labour and complication rates. The medicine was used from the beginning of the ninth month pregnancy, and reduced the average time of labour to 5,1 hours in comparisons to the placebo. The average birth time is 8,5 hours (the women used the placebo). The rate of complications for those using the homeopathic combination was 11,3%, while the complication rate under placebo was 40% ! So maybe we homeopaths, should just give these complex homeopathic remedies for birth? For this study is so simple, and so clear in favour of homeopathy!

Scientific studies

There are not many studies in this field, but I will mention some her. Because of the small number of studies, we can not say homeopathic treatments have effect during birth or as a birth preparation. We do need much more studies to confirm that. And we also need that different scientists are doing the same studies.

• Eid P, Felsig E, Sideri M; “Application of Homeopathic Caulophyllum thalictroides during labour.” British Homeopathic Journal, Oktober, 1993, 82, 245-248.
• Dorfman P, Lassere NM, Tetau M, “Homeopathic medicines in Pregnancy and Labour” Cahiers de Biotherapie, 94, April 1987, 77-81.
• Oberbaum M, Galoyan N, Lerner-Geva L, Singer SR, Grisaru S, Shasshar D, Samueloff A, “The effect of the homeopathic remedies Arnica montana and Bellis perennis on mild postpartum bleeding - a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled study” Complement There Med. 2005 jun; 13(2): 87-90.

Some last words

In this article, I have just mention some homeopathic remedies. There are many more good remedies to use in birth, for different reason. I just wanted to write an short article this time, about the most used remedies in my clinic. So hopefully you got a little bit fascinated about homeopathy and birth preparation. Please give feedback on the article, and I will be happy to hear about your experience for birth preparation and birth treatment. Hope to hear from you!