Episode 6: 42 Years of Chinese Medicine — Acupuncture, Fertility and Birth with Dr Jan Jamieson

Dr Jan Jamieson | Acupuncture Therapist and Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Canberra

Dr Jan Jamieson has been practicing acupuncture and Chinese medicine in Canberra for over 42 years. She holds a Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine from Western Sydney University and is currently a PhD candidate at ANU, where her research sits at the intersection of fertility and ethics in Chinese Medicine. She is AHPRA registered and a member of the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association.

Jan did not plan to become an acupuncturist. She was an English teacher when her then-husband enrolled her, without quite asking, in four years of full-time Traditional Chinese Medicine study. That accidental beginning led to one of the most quietly remarkable careers in Canberra's women's health community. For most of those 42 years, Jan has focused almost exclusively on gynaecology and fertility, drawn early to home births and never really looking back.

What Jan brings to this conversation is not clinical authority in the conventional sense. It is something rarer: 42 years of sitting with women at the most vulnerable moments of their reproductive lives, watching patterns repeat across generations, and developing a quiet, precise understanding of what the body is actually doing and what it needs.

We cover how acupuncture supports women through pregnancy, from first trimester anxiety and nausea to cervical preparation from 36 weeks. We talk about what Chinese medicine sees in conditions like endometriosis that Western medicine has been slow to name, and why Jan was diagnosing it 20 years before it became a mainstream conversation.

We talk about fertility and what Jan actually does in her treatment room with women who cannot conceive. Not just the physical interventions, but the emotional weight she holds alongside them. She shares a story about a woman who spent two years in bitterness over her inability to conceive, who one day looked at a friend's baby with nothing but love, and who was pregnant the next morning.

We talk about information overload and the tightrope women walk between being informed enough to navigate the system and staying connected to their own instincts. About why partners so often side with doctors over their labouring partner. About what Jan sees in women who come back for a second birth with a fire in them that wasn't there before.

CONNECT WITH JAN

pregnancy support.

AHPRA registered. Member of the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association. Health fund rebates available.

Contact Jan directly to enquire about appointments (02) 6247 5564

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): a system of medicine including acupuncture, herbal medicine and other modalities rooted in classical Chinese thought

• Chinese herbal medicine: Jan combines acupuncture with classically formulated Chinese herb powders mixed specifically for each patient

• FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone): a marker of ovarian reserve used in fertility assessment. Jan describes bringing a patient's FSH from 82 down to a range where IVF became viable

• Endometriosis: an inflammatory, immune-mediated condition in which tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus. In Chinese medicine, understood as blood stagnation

• VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean): vaginal birth following a previous caesarean. Jan observes that second-time birthers pursuing VBAC are inevitably successful when given time and support

• Hospice chaplaincy: Jan's retirement dream. From one end of life to the other.