Gentle Postpartum Acupuncture: Your Path to Recovery, Comfort, and Care
Postpartum Acupuncture in Oakland
If you’re reading this, you may have just welcomed a new baby into your life—or you’re about to. This postpartum healing guide is written for you. Whether you’re looking for support with milk supply, cesarean healing, emotional balance, better sleep, or hormone recovery after birth, Chinese medicine’s ancient and gentle practices are here to nurture your postpartum needs every step of the way.
First, take a moment to recognize all you have accomplished and all the changes you’re moving through right now. This time is precious, but it can also feel overwhelming, and your needs matter deeply. As you navigate the journey of healing postpartum and new beginnings as a parent (whether it’s your first or your fifth), acupuncture and East Asian medicine offer a caring way to support your mind, body, and heart.
How Postpartum Acupuncture Supports Your Healing
During pregnancy, birth, and the weeks that follow, your body uses immense energy to bring new life into the world. It’s normal to feel depleted, raw, or even uncertain. Chinese medicine sees healing as restoring the gentle flow of your energy—your “Qi”—so you can recover fully, both inside and out. After you give birth, we want to help replenish your qi and blood, and we can do that with Chinese medicine practices.
Let’s Explore Postpartum Acupuncture Together
Here’s how these practices can help you in the moments you need them the most:
1. Helping You Nourish Milk Supply
If you’re nursing your baby and/or pumping, you might be navigating challenges with milk production, which can bring stress and worry. But even if you aren’t having any milk supply issues, we focus treatments on boosting you up and replenishing your stores of energy to keep your supply going. Even receiving prenatal acupuncture can be supportive in building your constitution as you prepare for your birth. Acupuncture can gently encourage your body’s natural lactation pathways by supporting circulation and energy flow in your chest, as well as nourish you so you can nourish your baby. Each tiny needle is placed with care, always with your comfort in mind. We can help boost your milk supply with acupuncture and other effective Traditional Chinese medicine postpartum practices like gua sha and cupping.
Chinese herbal medicine is a great option for insufficient lactation, which we can tailor just for you, to boost your milk supply further and nurture both your body and your little one. If you need encouragement or reassurance about breastfeeding/chestfeeding, know you are not alone, and gentle support is available. We also support clients who suffer from mastitis and/or pain with nursing with targeted treatments and care plans.
2. Easing Your Cesarean Recovery and healing from birth
Every birth is different, and postpartum healing is not always linear. Both a vaginal birth and a cesarean birth require rest and healing to conserve your energy so you can care for yourself and your baby.
If your baby arrived via cesarean, you will need extra care and support. Acupuncture is a gentle way to help your body mend itself—encouraging circulation, easing swelling, and soothing discomfort so you can move with a bit more ease each day. Acupuncture helps with the healing process, even accelerating it, although we still recommend resting as much as possible in the beginning.
Beyond physical healing, we see you: your experience, your emotions, and your resilience. Our acupuncturists hold space for all of you, helping you rebuild strength and find relief as your body recovers. After you move through the acute phase of healing, we work on incision healing with moxibustion and acupuncture.
3. Nurturing Your Mood and Emotions
The days and nights after your birth can feel like a whirlwind—joyful, exhausting, and everything in between. Hormones can cause mood swings or even tearful moments. Learning to care for your baby can feel like a steep learning curve. Our acupuncture sessions offer you a quiet place to rest, recalibrate, and let go. Gentle postpartum-focused treatments help balance hormones, soothe anxiety, and lift low moods by encouraging your body’s natural ability to create feel-good chemicals.
If you are struggling, please know it’s okay to reach out. This support is here for you. If you are experiencing postpartum depression and/or postpartum anxiety, we are so grateful to be a part of your care team. We have a network of perinatal mental health providers to share with you to get you the help you need. Acupuncture sessions can be a supportive addition to this care to relax your nervous system, help with mood stabilization, and offer you a feeling of calm and safety as you navigate this new terrain.
Your body’s hormones are on a remarkable journey of their own. Acupuncture can support this transition, helping your endocrine system find stability as you get your bearings as a parent. You might notice more balanced moods, increased energy, and fewer uncomfortable symptoms like night sweats or fatigue. With individualized herbal therapy alongside acupuncture, the focus is always on meeting your unique needs, so you feel replenished and more like yourself.
4. Supporting Restful Sleep
Sleep often feels scarce for new parents, and exhaustion can build. With acupuncture, you’ll be guided into deep relaxation, giving your nervous system the chance to reset and rest. Even short naps can become more restorative, and if sleep feels impossible, we’ll work with you to address imbalances that might be behind restless nights. So, even while you may not be able to sleep for good chunks of time, we can help support your sleep quality so that the sleep you do get feels more restful.
You can also receive herbal remedies crafted for postpartum rest, supporting you and your baby with gentle, natural solutions.
5. relieve body pain and Discomfort
Now that you are home with your baby, you may have soreness or pain from your birth experience. And holding our baby can cause new aches and pains postpartum. Some common areas people notice are upper back and neck pain from feeding and holding your baby. Wrist pain, wrist tendonitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome postpartum are incredibly common.
Acupuncture for pain relief helps decrease inflammation, increase circulation, and support healing so you can care for your baby without pain. We also love incorporating gua sha, cupping, and massage when patients need it to accelerate the healing process.
More Ways to Hold You During Postpartum: The Wisdom of East Asian Medicine
Recovery after birth isn’t just about acupuncture. These additional therapies offer gentle touchpoints for healing:
Moxibustion for postpartum healing
Moxibustion for postpartum is a comforting technique that uses warmth from the herb mugwort near acupuncture points, warming you from the inside out—something especially soothing if you often feel cold or depleted after delivery. Some common postpartum concerns that moxibustion can help are cesarean incisions and scar therapy, boosting energy, supporting digestion, and healing prolapse after birth.
Herbal Medicine
Herbal formulas, thoughtfully blended, can ease fatigue, improve digestion, and encourage milk flow. Each Chinese herbal formula is as unique as you are. We have a granule and capsule pharmacy of Chinese herbs that we pull from to create custom formulas just for you when needed.
Postpartum Nutrition Guidance
Healing foods are central in Traditional Chinese medicine and culture. Chinese postpartum practices include nourishing soups and broths, filled with warmth and comfort. Let us help you create a postpartum diet that feels kind to your body and fuels your energy. We are so honored to share the wisdom we’ve learned with you.
Massage Therapy (Tuina) and cupping
Gentle bodywork and cupping can untangle tension, improve blood flow, and help your body settle after pregnancy and birth. Many find this touch deeply comforting and grounding.
You Are Welcome Here: Inclusive, Compassionate Care
No two postpartum journeys are alike. Whether you became a parent by birth, surrogacy, or another path—regardless of your gender, identity, or story—you belong. At East Bay Acupuncture, we create a supportive, warm space so you can heal, ask questions, and find customized care just for you.
We honor and celebrate all families, offering support that reflects your lived experience and unique needs. You know yourself best, and we listen deeply to what you need.
During Your First Visit: What to Expect
When you arrive, our goal is to wrap you in care—from a calming environment to soothing treatments. During your session, your acupuncturist will:
Focus on your most pressing concerns, whether physical or emotional
Use gentle, mindful techniques aimed at minimizing discomfort
Offer herbal or self-care recommendations you can use at home
Honoring Your Healing Journey
The postpartum period isn’t just about getting back to “normal”—it’s about rebuilding your strength, tending to your spirit, and allowing yourself to receive care. You deserve a compassionate partner through every up and down.
Let us walk beside you. If you’re ready for nourishing support on your postpartum path, we invite you to book an appointment and discover how acupuncture and Traditional Chinese medicine can comfort and lift you as you move through postpartum with your baby.
Taking the Next Step at East Bay Acupuncture
At East Bay Acupuncture in Oakland near Lake Merritt, our mission is to help you feel your best through compassionate, personalized care. Whether you’re new to acupuncture or have been receiving treatments for years, we’ll ensure your experience is tailored, effective, and centered on your goals as you navigate becoming a new parent or new mother.
If you’re ready for postpartum support, give us a call to book your first session today. Together, we’ll build a plan that works for you. Ready to book? You can find our online schedule here!