When Sonya came to see me in 2006, she was a mother of two children. She and her husband then wanted to have a third child, but this time it wasn't easy. In the last one and a half years, she'd had three miscarriages, which all happened in about week 11, and the last one just happened 2 months ago. Sonya also had type I diabetes and had been on insulin for many years. According to her history and clinical manifestations, I believed her problem was deficiency of Qi and blood, and the principle of treatment should be invigorating Qi and nourish the blood, so that the function of reproductive system can be strengthened. I applied acupuncture on points Tian Shu, Qi Hai, Guan Yuan, Zu San Li, Xue Hai and San Yin Jiao. In addition to acupuncture, I also suggested Sonya use contraceptive for a few months in order to give her body some time to recover. Since Sonya was busy with looking after the children and working part-time, the intervals between the sessions varied from one to three weeks. After about a year, she was pregnant again. We carried on with the acupuncture until week 15 of her pregnancy when all the routine medical checkups confirmed normal for both herself and the baby. The next time I saw Sonya was in her week 35, when she came to have treatment for another problem - sore and swollen arms and hands. After 2 sessions of acupuncture, her arms and hands went back to normal. Two weeks later, she gave birth to a healthy boy.
