Acupuncture cuts oxytocin use at Iraq childbirths

Doctors in Iraq have successfully used #acupuncture during childbirth to cut down on oxytocin use. Oxytocin is a drug which is often given to mothers just after a Caesarean delivery to help the womb contract and to cut the risk of bleeding. However, this drug was in short supply in Iraq. Oxytocin is a hormone that also occurs naturally in the body during labour.

The study covered emergency Caesarean sections at the Red Crescent Hospital for Gynaecology and Obstetrics in Baghdad between 2004 and 2006, when oxytocin stocks were low. "Oxytocin proved largely unnecessary in my series of patients, apparently through the action of acupuncture" Lazgeen Zcherky, an anaesthetist who led the study, said in a statement. "We were thus able to conserve stocks of those drugs we held in short supply without ill effects on our patients" (source: Reuters).