A time when mum can remodel herself . .
Or wreck herself . .

And makes her grandchildren whilst her own baby is being formed

One mum speaks . .

Testimonial – Comparison between my four pregnancies, the fourth having used Heather Bruce and Acupuncture

1 was several weeks into my fourth pregnancy when I was having a whinge to a friend about morning sickness, and she said she had heard good things about acupuncture and there was a lady down the road who specialised in pregnancy acupuncture.

I made my appointment without delay, as I had prior experience with acupuncture and was impressed with the results, but had not formed a relationship with any of the practitioners enough to return to them.

Heather is a “take charge” type of woman, which is normally what I am, at least in my pre-children life. I have to say I dug my heals in at the thought of being told to change, but each time I left Heather’s rooms, I did feel good. It didn’t take long for me to appreciate Heather’s advice. and now standing well clear of finishing my masterpiece, my family, I can see distinct benefits of acupuncture and natural therapy throughout and after pregnancy.

Symptom\ Baby number	I – 8/4/2000	2- 12/12/3	3 • 30/11/5	4 • 18/1/8
High Blood Pressure	Yes	Yes	No	No
Still Working	Yes	Yes	Part-time	Yes
Anxiety	Yes	Yes	less	No
Back/muscle pain	Yes	Yes	Yes	Less
Morning sickness (nausea, no vomiting)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Less
Insomnia	Yes	Yes	Yes	Less
Leg Cramps throughout night	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
“Hot Feet” throughout night	Yes	Ye s	Yes	No
Cystic acne behind ears after birth of baby up to 2 months	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Well newborn	Mucous eyes	Small, ill	Yes	Yes
Baby with reflux	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Happy newborn	No	No	No	Yes
Milk – supply	No	not great	not great	Yes
Baby weight gain	Bottle, good	slow	slow/under	good
My getting sick by I2mths of breastfeeding	N/A	Yes	Yes	Not much

Some notes to make sense of the table above

Baby 1, was conceived while I ran a stressful small advertising agency in a partnership that was doomed to fail. It split up when I was five months pregnant, less than a year out from losing my mother- in ­ law, and only a few months into our first mortgage. All of the clients stayed with me as I attempted to continue earn in g in come. I remember the last half-day ward visit where they decided to induce me for high blood pressure , standing in the hallway making sure an advertisement had met the deadline for one of my clients as the midwives were trying to find me. I had gone from 65kg to well over 100kg – unrecognisable.

My Dad was in the same hospital, very ill after a stroke, and this poor little baby was about to land in the middle of mayhem. Thank goodness he‘ s placid to this day. I couldn’t breastfeed as I had rashes cover me each hormonal flush, and there didn’t seem to be much milk enough to help him. Reflux was awful.

Chiropractor helped that somewhat but I think the formula was largely the problem . He developed a vision problem and some asthma, both of which we are getting on top of now.

Baby 2, was conceived after two miscarriages and two years of trying. and I had made the decision to drop back to a part-time public service art department job, rather than keep the stress of deadlines and working all hours of the night while Connor was asleep. The public service job was mind-destroying, and the blood pressure came b ck along with 3-year old tantrums to push me past the edge of reason. My co­ workers couldn’t understand why I wanted to leave work at 33wks, and that I was just hormonal, not blood pressure affected. I took charge, said I didn’t feel well, burst into tears and left! Jessica was born 9 days early, small for dates and took ill at 8 days of age with a gastro illness, giving her very high fevers for five days (enough they would never tell me what the number was), s he had a lumbar puncture and chest X-rays, and had dropped to 2000g from her birth weight of 2370g. She’s a great lady in the making now, but she was work to get there. Reflux was bad. Sleep was awful. She had a rough first twelve months. 1hav e to add though that she can get still highly strung even at age five, perhaps residue of her tense beginnings?

Baby 3, was a different kettle of fish. I was only working a few hours where my husband needed me to help with paperwork. 1 didn’t have the stress, and I had lost all of the weight after Jess. 1 had a pinched nerve in my lower back leading me to have an epidural during her labour (2.5 weeks early), which was good as 1 watched her birth with only the sore side of me numb and 1could feel contractions with the other side. Downside , I couldn’t walk for a few hours. I cut the cord and she fed straight away, pretty easy! Loud at birth and is still loud. She is still a bit skinny, like the prior two were until this age and feels the cold.

Baby 4,  the work was mounting up with the building business again and I now had three children to care for, so pretty busy. I hadn’t lost Keira’s baby weight as I thought I should concentrate on feeding her rather than my weight loss and then discovered I was pregnant the week I bought my diet. 1was also trying to teach swimming in the cold months, which Heather told me to give up as it would surely harm the baby to let myself get that cold – which I did do. Apparently I was depleted from having four close together as well. I felt drained, tired, nauseous, and like I could get Into trouble with the pregnancy. Heather immeasurably helped me through all of that. I had an electric shock (long story) at 27 weeks, which Heather cleared out of my system of any bad feelings, then a week later apparent kidney stones shook loose and had me back in hospital. A second stone went to go, which I thought was early labour with intense back pain. Heather used the moxa on my back.

Pain relief was immediate lasting a full 24 hours until the stone moved and I was back in hospital. Then after having four pregnancies, my uterus had become quite spacious and little James found it enjoyable to turn any way he liked. I didn’t get stressed, Heather definitely kept me under control. My sleep was pretty good even in the last weeks, as was my usual back and neck pain (no pain to mention) and no leg cramps or hot feet at any point. James stayed in there until the day before my due date, the longest duration of the four, when the doctors advised a Caesar as the safest option with an unstable lie. 1was happy with that, but my goodness the pain and immobility I was not prepared for.

Heather helped repair my scar, taking much of the hypersensitivity out of the skin’s surface – the softest touch was most painful prior to that. I continued treatments as long as he would happily be a good baby during the sessions. Good milk. Good baby. Good decision.

We’re all happy.