Back pain in pregnancy affects up to 75% of women, it disrupts lives - sometimes severely - yet very little treatment is available. At the same time, acupuncture has been shown to be a safe and effective treatment for back pain more generally. The 'EaseBack' study at Keele University is being led by Prof Nadine Foster and aims to understand the experiences of pregnant women with back pain and their views on acupuncture in pregancy.
The results from this research will feed into designing a larger study next year in which pregnant women will receive acupuncture treatment. We are particularly interested to have your views on what might support women to take part in a study like that, as well as the sorts of things that might put them off. The overall intention is to establish whether this is a useful treatment, and hopefully - if it is - argue the case for it to be made widely available.
If you have been affected by back pain in pregnancy and are willing to talk about your experiences, please get in touch for more information. If you are still interested when you have learned more, we will arrange to interview you over the phone at a time and location to suit you.
On behalf of the EaseBack team, thanks for reading this and hope to hear from you.
Bernadette Bartlam
b.bartlam@keele.ac.uk
01782 733939