castor oil...have you/would you?

[bmybaby]

Basically just trying to get past experiences of castor oil and preferences.

No and no! Raspberry leaf tea capsules from H&B seemed to help get dd out a week early...

I wouldn't, even if it does kick start labour, why would you want the shits to go with it?

don't !!! if it works, it works by giving you really bad upset stomach and that can start contractions, however you might find you are on the loo and in pain from that and do you really want labour pains too !?

it can also increase the incidence of meconium stained waters iirc.

i would wait for things to happen,but if you are impatient, a far more pleasant way is sex and nipple stim, pref, with a breast pump

please don't shoot me down but i did with my first, very long complicated pg and was told id be induced and then when the time came they wouldn't.....i did it over a couple of days and had it in orange juice, it wasn't nice....basically waters broke in the evening of the second day with no contractions, i did have meconium in waters and labour started intensily very quickly, delivered within 4.5 hours from waters breaking. no dodgy tummy only sick with transition, however with second labour didn't use it and very similar labour, although they broke waters still fast still was sick no meconium though. i wouldnt do it again though and wouldn't recommend it, just thought id share my story :)

Please don't shoot me I did with my 1st was young at the time and would seriously avoid it was worse experience in my life did bring on labour or maybe it was because I was 7days overdue. I had the runs, sick and dehydrated sorry if tmi. Would I do it again NO way. With 2nd dc I took raspberry capsuals and my labour experience was quick and a lot better.

do not use castor oil!
it's really, really bad for you, but mainly for the baby.
it can make the baby have a bowel movement. (hence meconium in the waters)

God I was thinking about this today I though it was a great natural way to start labour after reading this I think I'll give it a miss!

No way.

I had a really spicy pizza and beer which got things moving! Had also done the raspberry leaf and exercise, pineapple and hot curry. Spicy pizza did it for me.

raspberry leaf tea won't induce labour/contractions, it is a uterine tonic, so heps to tone the muscle so contractions are more efficient and labour is shorter

tbh you would probably struggle to get Castor oil now because its not recommended try some rumpy pumpy !!!

Nothing. Works.

Some people have sex and then a baby or pizza and a baby but it's coincidence.

Castor oil is also a risk too far. Babies come when they're ready.

iv bern.reccomended syrup of figs to get bowels moving and stary contractions but I really dont want to end up with the runs in labour??!!
has anyone tried this im 40+4

Actually I don't think my situation was coincidence. Spicy pizza and beer causes my body to have internal contractions because I have a mild intolerance. It works at other times for other things so is not something I'd ever eat out.

Yes getting bowels moving is what happened with me I was completely empty long before established labour.

The start of labour is a chemical communication between the baby and your brain. We are not in control of it. If any of the induction myths worked, they'd ban sex, pizza, walking, curry etc before term. For every one woman who claims causation, hundreds more will find no link.

Of course you may be the exception to what we empirically know about biology and/or have access to magic pizza.

No way, if your body isn't ready to go into labour you'll just make labour far worse for yourself. I know it's frustrating but resist!

I'm not sure if the magic pizza comment is supposed to be patronising or rude

Either way, I was under the impression (from what I have read in BMJ, NICE guidelines and other medical publications) that we don't entirely understand what triggers labour. I think there's some evidence uterine contractions can trigger labour, as can trauma including membrane sweep and the chemicals used in induction pessaries, drips and gels. Not that these always work hence failed inductions. But I don't pretend to know. I can just report what happened to me and I don't pretend that's data because it isn't.

One thing's clear though. Castor oil will make you feel bloody awful.

I did castor oil on dc2 and will do it again if necessary. Dd1 was induced and I had a three day nightmare, she was 9lb 15. I went 8 days over on ds, who was measuring off the top of the chart consistently. I was booked for induction 2 days later and was terrified of ending up with section as I'm not from the UK and wouldn't have had anyone to help at home after first few days. Dd was only walking 4 weeks and it would have been a nightmare.

I had 5 sweeps, to no avail. Rlt, sex, walks, curry etc. I took the castor oil dosage recommended in the hypno birthing book I had, three spoons over an hour and a half. I took first spoon at midday. I had awful dose for a couple of hours that evening and went to bed. Woke at 4.45 with 45 sec long contractions every 4/5 min and ds was born at 8.35 weighing a whooping 10lb 6. No pain relief, no episiotomy, no problems.

My consultant has been very supportive and open to the idea of trying this this time if needed.

What GoGoBananas said.

Time is what makes the baby come.

If anything worked I'd not be sitting here at 41+1 still pregnant, thinking about fending off hassle about induction next week, I'd be having pineapple sex curry or whatever this week's suggested method is!

I agree with Flisspaps.

If sex/curry/pineapple etc worked, we'd be told to avoid these things during pregnancy (or at least avoid them before 37 weeks).

Although, pineapple sex curry does sound good right now.

I think I missed the bit where anyone said curry, pineapple or sex worked (although there is a bit of evidence that a chemical in seaman can induce labour but there's not enough in ejaculate to make much difference). I have a personal peculiarity that means when I eat certain things I get abdominal contractions i haven't said it would work for anyone else but i think it did for me. If I go overdue with the next one I'll give it another go and report back

There are several substances that are not advised in pregnancy because they are believed to cause uterine contractions. There's not a huge amount of medical evidence to back it up but that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't an issue - it means it's untested. However, anything you can do at home is going to have no more than a trigger effect (unless you start messing with stronger stuff) so your body still has to be ready in the first place. Which is why medical induction sometimes fails too.

I've had several people report reflexology works. This I doubt because it doesn't change your physiology. However, when you're overdue and fed up Doing Something can make you feel a bit better and so long as it does no harm I don't see the problem.

Doing Something is very positive and I didn't mean to be patronising or rude, I was being lighthearted.

All empirical testing would suggest that there is no causal link between any of the old wives tales and labour starting. We do not know exactly what starts labour, no, but we do know that short of chemical intervention, we can't start the process ourselves and it's widely believed to be something which happens between us and the baby not us and the outside world. We might be able to speed it up though. And even then it's not often an easy process.

I have no problem with any woman doing whatever works for them. But when we know that it's highly unlikely that any of these things are anything other than coincidence, then I am all for championing the support and comfort of women who run themselves ragged having sex they don't want, drinking and eating stuff to induce discomfort and marching around on walks which exhaust them. Especially when we cling to this 40 week due date thing and psychologically women are feeling overdue and under pressure as soon as that date comes round. It always feels a bit bloody unfair that all these methods involve ingesting large amounts of discomfort-inducing items or exhausting ourselves physically. I just think women could be better supported to understand that this is something over which we have little control. And I say this as a woman who ended up with PND because every little thing I tried to have control over during childbirth went 'wrong'. It didn't go wrong, I just wasn't in the driving seat.

Flisspaps Pinapple Sex Curry where would one find that on the menu and what side orders would be suggested. xx

Sorry GoGo I had a bit of a sense if humour failure yesterday. Yes I am inclined to agree with those points. So much of birth is down to luck and things we can't control.

There are substances in pineapple and seaman that have been shown to induce labour. But you could never eat enough or have enough sex for it to make any difference because the quantities are so tiny. Stimulating contractions has been shown to work (i guess this is where the curry link came from?? And also faster oil/syrup of figs etc??) but do normal people really get an upset tummy with contractions from curry? I doubt it and if they did it's not really a pleasant option.

I'm not really keen on artificial induction either and the 40 weeks is a fairly arbitrary figure. I'm fully expecting (if this pg turns out to be viable) to go to 42 weeks based on LMP date because I know the earliest date I could have conceived. I'll be asking them to check placenta function instead of inducing me for a further week. Although at 40 weeks pg I'd rather be induced than have sex!