Sometimes an unborn baby can be small for your stage of pregnancy. Small-for-date babies can occur for a wide variety of different reasons and of course all of those need to be thoroughly addressed. However, from a Chinese medical point of view, it is always helpful to increase and improve your gut function, aka your Spleen and Stomach.
This can be done through using a special warming therapy called moxibustion to special acupressure points.
We recommend using acupressure point ST-36 on both legs to assist with improving the digestive function. It’s located on the front of the shin, four fingers below the kneecap on the outside of the shin bone (see picture below). Just five minutes on each leg per day is enough to nudge your body in the right direction to encourage a healthy pregnancy and birth. You can purchase moxibustion sticks plus instructions from our online store.
From a Chinese medical point of view, helping to enhance your digestion, increase your nutritional intake and improve your blood flow through acupuncture will only have a positive impact on you and your growing baby. It certainly won’t hurt!
We also encourage you to eat soups and stews made from free-range organic chicken or beef bones. Slow-cooked soups and stews are THE best thing for improving gut function and nutrient absorption. Small-for-date babies are less common among mothers with healthy guts who are absorbing nutrients properly from their food.
Chicken Broth Recipe
Want a great recipe? Here’s a fab chicken broth you can try.
Ingredients:
2–3 chicken carcasses, washed (preferably free-range or organic. You can use your leftover carcass from a roast chicken or you can use a bunch of chicken legs. The more chicken you use, the richer the stock is.)
4 sticks of celery, washed and cut into pieces
2 brown onions, with skin, washed and cut
2 carrots, with skin and ends intact, washed and cut
4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (to help bring out calcium and other minerals)
Large stockpot or your slow cooker, filled almost to the top with water
Sea salt to taste (add this at the end)
These are the base ingredients. You may wish to add herbs for more flavour depending on what the stock is going to be used for. Additions can include things like bay leaves, marjoram, parsley or peppercorns. Whatever you do though, make sure you don’t add salt until the end, otherwise all the goodness from the bones and vegetables will not leach into the water.
Method:
1) Place your chicken into a pot covered with water, bring it to the boil and then discard the water and replace with fresh water. This cleans the chicken and you won’t need to skim the scum from the stock later on.
2) Place all ingredients in the stockpot and fill with water to 4/5 of pot capacity. Bring to the boil and then simmer for two hours or more; the longer you simmer the richer it becomes. If you have a slow cooker, use that and do it for 10 hours. Once it’s finished, add salt to taste. If you’ve been simmering for a long time though, chances are you won’t need any salt.
3) When complete, leave to cool, strain (for fat) through a sieve using muslin cloth and store in containers for refrigeration or freezing. You don’t have to strain the fat off though – that’s personal preference.