raspberry leaf tea- teabags or loose leaf?

[teachertrainer80]

have just started on the raspberry leaf tea as 38 weeks. just got teabags from local health food shop but rasp leaf content only 30%. would loose leaf be better or shall i just drink more of this stuff? what are others doing?

if you dont like the taste you can take the tablets instead. I used teabags for convenience

I took the tablets. Couldn't stand the taste of the tea!

Lurking - interested to know what people are taking and how much and from what week of pregnancy.

I'm a weirdo and quite like raspberry tea so happy to drink it unless tablets are more concentrated and therefore more likely to make a difference.

I had both the tea and the tablets last time around - I think I was having about 4x the suggested dose, but I'd only started at around 39w.
I would have the teabags just for convenience - and use more than one, or get the pills as well, if you think that you need more oomph.

MissPolly - I think the recommendation is to start taking it around 36w - I'll start a couple of weeks early because my obgyn doesn't want me to get to 40w pg, he's aiming for me to deliver by 39w latest.

Thumbwitch - all it (supposedly) does is tone the uterus to make ctx more efficient once you're actually in labour.

Even if you start now, you're no more likely to go into labour before 40w than if you don't take it at all!

FWIW, I had it (from 36w, with sugar) with both of mine - induced at 40+15 with DD, and spontaneous labour at 40+11 with DS.

Thanks Thumbwitch. I really don't want to deliver before 40 weeks as am absolutely manic at work at the moment and only finishing work at 37 weeks and need time to relax and get to grips with the idea of a new baby, buy stuff for new baby, prepare for birth etc.

Does this mean that I should avoid taking the tea until I'm ready for the baby and then start drinking gallons of it? I had thought that it didn't bring on labour sooner but might make the second stage quicker - am I wrong?

Sorry OP for hijacking your thread.

Flisspaps you've answered my question!

Yes I know thanks Fliss - it did a lovely job of toning my uterus last time and the reason for starting earlier this time is not to "bring on" the labour, but to allow roughly the same length of time between starting and labour as I would have if I were going to wait until natural term.

That's all good then - I see it recommended so often on these boards as something to do to start labour that I thought I'd mention it just in case!

tablets worked faster than the tea for me, and helped immensely with fast labours

Tablets are supposed to be better than tea. I had to stop taking them as they made my BH's so strong. Def think it helped with my labours though.