Science Briefs
Burning Mugwort Turns Breech Babies
Herbs burnt close to acupuncture points on a mother's toes can help turn her breech baby right-side up—in this case, head-down. Most babies in the breech position eventually turn before birth, but if not, they are delivered by cesarean to avoid complications. In China, however, the burning of herbs, called moxibustion, has traditionally done the trick.
Francesco Cardini, M.D., of Verona, Italy, and Huang Weixin, M.D., of the Jiangxi's Women's Hospital in Nanchang, China, conducted a randomized, controlled trial of 260 women with breech babies in the 33rd week of pregnancy. Half the women received moxibustion stimulation with mugwort (Artemesia vulgaris) at acupuncture point BL 67, located beside the outer corner of the fifth toenail. The burning herb bundle was held close to the skin for 15 minutes on each foot once or twice a day for seven days.
Women given moxibustion had more active babies (48 vs. 35 fetal movements per hour), and in many cases, their more active babies turned themselves over. By 35 weeks, 75 percent of the babies given moxibustion were head-down, whereas only 48 percent of the control babies had turned.
If their babies were still in the breech position at week 35 of pregnancy, women in both groups could elect to undergo external cephalic version (ECV), a procedure that attempts to turn the baby from the outside. An additional 19 control babies given ECV after 35 weeks turned around, so at birth, 62 percent of them were facing head-down. None of the babies who went without ECV turned after 35 weeks.
Only four babies whose mothers had received moxibustion scored low on a test that assesses a newborn's health, whereas 14 of the control group did so; researchers suggest this was the result of breech position.
The authors conclude that conducting moxibustion from weeks 33 to 35, followed by ECV if the baby was still breech at 35 weeks, is an effective approach to breech presentation.
—Journal of the American Medical Association 1998 Nov;280(18):1580-4
