Drug therapy is a risky business at the best of times, but it is even more hazardous when applied to pregnant women. Who could forget the terrible consequences of the morning sickness drug ‘Distaval’ in the 1960’s - a drug which was accompanied by the assurance ‘can be given with complete safety to pregnant women and nursing mothers without adverse effect on mother or child’ -which created the Thalidomide tragedy. In 1969 Dr W Chr Muller of the then West German Gynaecological University Clinic reported in the authoritative medical journal Munchner Medizinische Wochenschrift (No.34, 1969) a survey by German doctors which revealed that "for 61% of all malformed children born alive and 88% of all stillborn children, the intake of various drugs had to be held responsible."

           It is for this reason that responsible scientists must look at alternative ways of helping pregnant women with the symptoms of morning sickness. Researchers at the Department of Anaesthetics, Queen’s University, Belfast believe that they have found at least one natural, safe and effective treatment to help prevent morning sickness during pregnancy - acupressure.

           Over 300 women in the early stages of pregnancy were randomly divided into three groups. The first group received daily pressure at P6 (Neiguan) acupuncture point, the second group received acupressure at a non-specific point and the third group had no treatment at all. All of the women’s symptoms were monitored over a period of four consecutive days. The results showed that troublesome symptoms associated with morning sickness were significantly lower in treatment group than the other groups. Where-as only 23 out of 119 women in the treatment group experienced any morning sickness symptoms, nearly double that number (41 out of 112) experienced symptoms in the placebo treatment group and nearly three times the number of women in the control group recorded symptoms. No side effects occurred and the researchers concluded that pressure at the Neiguan point appears to have a specific therapeutic effect in helping to prevent the symptoms associated with morning sickness.