Hi girls! I am back with another pregnancy blog and this time we are talking about naturally inducing labor at home. While there’s no 100% proven, evidence-based way to “naturally induce labor at home” there are definitely some things that may help to kick-start labor. So, If you’ve reached full-term in your pregnancy and are ready to speed things along here is some information that might help!
Just a quick reminder to please be sure to talk with your doctor before deciding things on your own regarding your pregnancy. These are just suggestions and options. Every pregnancy and body is different so your personal doctors will be able to give you the best advice.
Now let’s get to it!
What Might Help
Walking and exercise: First of all, walking is one of the healthiest exercises that pregnant women can do and towards the end of pregnancy, it may even help get things going! I live in Arizona so I definitely don’t recommend walking in the middle of the day—honestly, probably best once the sun has set—it’s just way too hot otherwise! Or if you have access to a treadmill or gym—that’s another great option!
Yoga ball: Sitting on one of these may help with lower back pain or pelvic pressure but it also helps baby drop further into the pelvis. Sitting on this while rocking your hips in circles will help!
Sex: I know, I know—this one may be very uncomfortable especially this late in the pregnancy, but if you’re feeling up for it—by all means go for it! It’s safe and won’t harm the baby.
Eating dates: There’s a lot of misinformation on the internet about this one and no good research/studies done on this. They have tried to do several studies on this but it was all inconclusive. Now, why am I still okay with eating dates? Because (as long as you’re not allergic) eating dates isn’t harmful to the pregnancy! People say that it will help you have faster labor (ehhh…maaaybe) and help with preventing vaginal tears (again…mmm not likely) but they aren’t harmful, so by all means—eat dates!
What I Don’t Recommend
Castor oil: Unfortunately I don’t recommend this as an induction agent. I haven’t seen the best results with this and I’ll explain why. Castor oil can lead to significant GI stimulation which ultimately leads to irritation in the bowel and explosive diarrhea. When the bowel becomes irritated it then irritates the uterus and can lead to mild contractions. But women tend to feel very uncomfortable because along with that they experience pretty severe diarrhea. Does this happen to everyone? Not necessarily but it’s hard to distinguish who will experience this. It’s also been my experience (again there is no research on this, just what I’ve seen) that women that take castor oil also end up having babies who have meconium (meaning they have a bowel movement while inside the uterus). While this can happen with castor oil I’ve definitely seen it more in my patients who opt to drink castor oil, so I just don’t recommend it. If we had better research on it I’d be more open to recommending it.
