Acupuncture and Moxibustion for Labor, Induction and Breech Presentation

Talk to your maternity team first

Labor and breech presentation are medical situations. This page reports research only; it does not tell you how to start labor or turn a baby, and it gives no point directions. If your baby is moving less than usual, the NHS (United Kingdom) says to call your midwife or maternity unit immediately. [1] In the United States, call your obstetric provider, or 911 in an emergency.

The short answer

• Labor pain: mixed. Compared with sham acupuncture, one Cochrane review found little or no difference in pain intensity, but possibly more satisfaction and less use of drug pain relief.
• Starting labor (induction): no clear benefit for key birth outcomes. Evidence label: no good evidence of benefit for outcomes such as caesarean rate.
• Breech presentation: moxibustion plus usual care probably increases the chance of a head-down baby at birth in Cochrane's latest review, but a Danish trial found no effect. Evidence label: mixed.

Labor pain

The 2020 Cochrane review included 28 trials with 3,960 women; 13 tested acupuncture and 15 acupressure, and none was at low risk of bias on every measure. [2] Against sham acupuncture, acupuncture may make little or no difference to pain intensity (low-certainty evidence). [2] It may increase satisfaction with pain relief, and probably reduces use of drug pain relief (moderate-certainty evidence from small numbers of trials). [2] Acupuncture probably has little to no effect on caesarean section. [2] Against usual care the authors were uncertain about pain because the evidence was very low certainty. [2] For acupressure, see acupressure in labor and pregnancy.

Induction of labor

A 2017 Cochrane review included 22 trials with 3,456 women, comparing acupuncture or acupressure with sham, usual care or membrane sweeping. [3] Many trials had a moderate risk of bias. [3] The authors found no clear benefit for reducing caesarean section, and few trials reported on newborn illness or maternal death. [3] One trial showed better cervical readiness on a standard score. [3] A 2025 review of 10 trials with 1,432 participants found no significant differences in onset of spontaneous labor, epidural use, mode of delivery or low Apgar scores, and rated the evidence moderate to very low quality. [4] Neither trials using combined local and distant points nor those using distant points only differed from controls. [4]

Breech presentation and moxibustion

Moxibustion is the burning of a herb (mugwort) near the skin. The trials tested it at an acupuncture point on the fifth toe, traditionally called Bladder 67. [5] The 2023 Cochrane review included 13 studies with 2,181 women. [5] Compared with usual care alone, moxibustion plus usual care probably reduces the chance that the baby is not head-down at birth (7 trials, moderate-certainty). [5] The effect on needing a doctor to turn the baby by hand (external cephalic version) was very uncertain, and the chance of caesarean section was probably little different. [5] Side effects such as nausea, unpleasant odour, abdominal pain and uterine contractions were reported in one study, and the authors were very uncertain about harm; adverse events were inadequately reported in most trials. [5] A Danish trial of 200 women at 33 weeks found no significant effect of daily moxibustion for two weeks. [6] The NHS says that if a baby is breech at 36 weeks you will usually be offered external cephalic version by a health professional. [7] See moxibustion for breech presentation and moxibustion for the traditional background and cautions.

Benefits and limits

• Most trials cannot be fully blinded; the breech reviews note that objective outcomes (the baby's position) reduce this problem. [5]
• Findings from one country or one practitioner style may not apply elsewhere.
• Moxibustion carries burn and smoke risks; see moxibustion and cupping risks.