inducing labour?

[hwillm1977]

So, I'm now officially 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant, and approximately the size of a whale. The doctor will let me go 2 weeks past my due date before they induce me with drugs, but I'm anxious to get it going more naturally.

I've been doing physical activity every day... walking the dogs, stacking 2 cord of wood in the last three days, etc... but that hasn't helped at all. I heard ripe pineapple or papaya helped, but that didn't work either.

I'm just wondering if anyone has some natural labour inducing stategies I could try

 

[Beekissed]

Any natural laxative....magnesium sulfate(epsom salts)? Mineral oil?

If I had known what I know now, I would never have let them induce my labors...all THREE of them. How could that be? For their convenience, that is how.

Babies have been coming all by themselves for thousands of years and all the sudden we just can't get them out on time? Not likely. The inducement causes fetal stress and can lead to emergency C-section(one for me) and is totally unnecessary.

Of course, I find all that out AFTER having my children when I went to nursing school.

How bout you tell the doc that baby will come out when it's done cooking and not until? And it will.....

 

[Wildsky]

Just sit tight and enjoy your full night sleep...

that said, when I was full term with my daughter, I was horribly constipated because of the pressure etc.... my midwife suggested a little cod liver oil in OJ. I think it was just a teaspoon or so... I took it and it did work which was FANTASTIC and very shortly after I went into labor.

I'm not sure if my daughter was totally ready yet, she was facing the wrong way which made for a very difficult home birth.

 

[freemotion]

If there are no risk factors, then there are acupressure points that can be stimulated. Best by someone else, but you can do it, too. See if you can find someone to show you how....I know of several massage therapists who help a spouse or a client who was overdue. If you can find someone who specializes in acupressure or pregnancy massage, you could probably pay for a short session and have him/her teach you and your hubby exactly where the points are and how to press them. Accuracy and direction of pressure are important.

There are 4-6 commonly used points, in the shoulder, hand, leg, foot.

 

[Wildsky]

Oh and what about the same way the baby was made in the first place... thats supposed to work.

 

[hwillm1977]

Oh and what about the same way the baby was made in the first place... thats supposed to work.

lol... we were trying that, but at the last doctors appointment he said I'm 60% effaced, and he can feel the top of her head engaged 'locked and loaded' were his exact words...

hubby is now way too freaked out for doing the nasty... he's worried he's going to smack the baby in the head

SIL works in a spa and does massages, so I'll ask her about the acupressure points and see if she or someone in the spa knows. She did say she's put a few women into labour with foot massages.

 

[AL]

ah Wildsky had my suggestion - a friend was way overdue and her hubby was able to get things moving.

 

[CJW]

Tell your hubbs to, well, get over his self and get 'er done! And don't pull out!

(I know this because when we were getting ready to have our first child, I said--honey, we need to do it...so we proceed to do it, and he pulls out at the end...I was like HONEY...you can't do that! The next night-same thing...ARGH...the third night--he didn't pull out and I went into labor a few hours later!)

I suppose if he is really freaked out about it...you could find a way to get his, um, seminal fluid, up there...but you would need to be creative. There are prostaglandins (sp?) in his seminal fluid that help get things going!

Oh--and you might get a case of diarrhea before you have the baby too...just your body's way of clearing out the tunnels before everything happens!

 

[MorelCabin]

Nipple stimulation releases the same hormone(or whatever it is) that is given to induce labour. Tried it, worked for me. Just roll em btween your thumb and forefinger for a few minutes and you'll see what I mean. Do it often, you'll have to stop in between because it really gets the uteris contracting and it hurts, but it will start it if you are persistant.

 

[patandchickens]

Red raspberry leaf tea, castor oil, and nipple stimulation are the three "usual suspects" that come to mind. The lastmentioned did not work for me; and the second one there is by all accounts REALLY unpleasant, whether or not it works in a particular case.

If we can use the term on this forum, orgasm is generally regarded as quite helpful. It does not necessarily require, um, the act by which the baby was initially conceived, if there are other means you are familiar with

Another thing that is often regarded as helpful (and I had it done myself, and believe that it did help since DS#2 was born about 8 hrs later) is to have a knowledgeable midwife or nurse-midwife, or *possibly* a knowledgeable OB/GYN but I'm not sure how many of those there are :>, "sweep the membranes". Basically they do an internal and use a gloved finger to gently separate between the inside of the cervix and the amniotic sac. This usually stimulates contractions and often labor; however be aware that it carries all the usual (small but nonzero) risks of having an internal exam done late in pregnancy, plus there is some chance that even with a skilled operator (and especially with an OB/GYN :>) that the membrane may rupture and THEN you're in a whole new ballpark, the "it's been X hrs now since my water broke and my insurance company says I have to go to the hospital and be chemically induced" type thing (if you are not going into labor on your own). So having the membranes swept has both pros and cons; I did it, but can certainly see why some choose not to.

I can say that one thing that STOPS labor when you are due is to be locked out of the house by your 3 yr old, have to get up on a ladder and climb through the bathroom window and then get stuck half-in half-out headfirst-down for about five minutes til you can talk the 3 yr old into bringing you a kitchen chair to support yourself on as you finish climbing through the window. DS #2 was *going* to be born on his due date, I am positive I was in early labor, but that little escapade pushed things off a coupla days

Good luck, have fun,

Pat