Breech Babies

Cardini et al (1998) studied 260 pregnant women at 33 weeks gestation who received either moxibustion or routine care but with no interventions. Those receiving moxibustion had more foetal activity and a higher number had turned into the correct position after the treatment and at delivery (click here for the full text article).

In a trial by Vas et al (2013), 406 pregnant women with a foetus in breech at 33-35 weeks either had moxibustion, moxibustion at a non-specific acupoint ('sham moxibustion') or usual care alone. 58.1% of the moxibustion group had a baby in the correct position at full term compared to 43.4% in the sham group and 44.8% in the usual care group (click here for the full text article).

Van den Berg et al (2010) used a modelling approach to assess the effectiveness and costs of breech version with moxibustion compared to the usual management of a woman with breech presentation at 33 weeks. They found that offering moxibustion to women with a breech foetus at 33 weeks reduces the number of breech presentations at term, thus reducing the number of caesarean sections, and is cost-effective compared to expectant management, including external cephalic version (click here for the abstract).