It is a traditional Chinese therapy, that involves burning a herb called moxa, above particular points and meridians on the surface of the body. Moxa is made from the plant Artemisia, which is also known as wormwood. As in acupuncture, the points on the body are related to the flow of ‘chi’ or ‘qi’, or life force, and the aim is to restore what is considered to be the correct, balanced flow of ‘chi’ or ‘qi’ to all parts of the body.
The stick of moxa is applied to the outside edge of the little toe on both feet of the pregnant mother for 15 to 20 minutes, three a day. Best results are supposedly achieved when treatment starts in the 34th week of pregnancy. You should stop once the baby turns. The stimulation of yang results in movement and prolonged use of moxibustion could cause the baby to continuously turn, once again moving into a breech position! Turning breech babies with moxibustion is a very common practice in Chinese medicine and success had been reported for centuries. It was mentioned to us by the Ward Nurse when we were in last week after the discovery that WB was breech.
The only downside of moxibustion is the house smells like a bonfire, the sweet smoke smell lingering on everything!
That’s a spliff, that is…
Hope all goes well tomorrow, will be thinking about you. Didn’t dawn on me that it’s Miranda’s birthday too!
Love the Brown Clan
They used Moxa on Polly the pooch at the Vet – ended up smelling the whole place out and Polly doing her funny walk out of the consultation room didn’t help assure the other waiting people/pets that we weren’t on the wacky backy thats for sure…. she did seem very mellow afterwards though!