Moxibustion Reduces Breech Births

Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese therapy that involves burning a dried herb, usually mugwort, near specific acupuncture points on the body. For turning a breech baby (when the baby’s bottom or feet are positioned to come out first, which is not desirable), the treatment is applied near the tip of the little toe at acupuncture point BL67. The warmth is thought to encourage the baby to turn to a more-desirable head-down position.

In a 2023 Cochrane Review, researchers reviewed 13 studies involving more than 2,100 pregnant women to determine if moxibustion helps babies turn to a head-down position before birth and whether it affects other outcomes such as the need for manual turning, cesarean birth or side effects. They compared moxibustion plus standard medical care to standard medical care alone or a fake version of moxibustion.

The review found that moxibustion patients saw a 13% improvement in reducing breech births. Moxibustion, when used along with usual medical care, probably helps more babies turn to a head-down position by birth compared to standard medical care alone.

However, the evidence was less certain for the other research questions. It is unclear whether moxibustion reduces the need for manual turning procedures. Moxibustion probably makes little or no difference to the rate of cesarean section, but it may reduce the need for synthetic oxytocin, which is administered to induce or strengthen labor. No serious harms were linked to moxibustion, but the evidence on safety is limited. Overall, the treatment appears to modestly increase the chance that a breech baby turns head-down before birth without deleterious side effects.