‘Acupuncture helps women have babies’ The Observer (21.09.08)
Hardly a week goes by these days without an article appearing in the press about acupuncture and IVF. Practitioners certainly report an increase in the number of patients seeking their help to conceive. Here, Katie Scampton demonstrates the ethical dilemmas and emotional rollercoaster that accompanied one particularly difficult case – for both patient and practitioner – and asks when, if ever, should one admit defeat and stop treatment?
This case study is an exploration of some of the emotional issues surrounding fertility and conception as well as the wider questions of conception and destiny. The study outlines a patient's presentation for treatment and how the issue of conception arose as part of the ongoing narrative of her health and her wellbeing. The telling of the case progresses according to the tradition of Five Element Acupuncture, and an understanding of the elements as a textured presentation of qi, strongly influenced by qi gong teachings. The discussion acknowledges some of our contemporary professional approaches to fertility and explores how we as practitioners might cultivate, perhaps even facilitate, the impossible dialogue of destiny surrounding childbirth.
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