Raspberry leaf tea / capsules

[OctoberOctober]

Anyone taking them?

I started today as MW advised waiting till 37 weeks. I'm taking the capsules as I don't like herbal teas at the best of times and have heard that the tea is pretty foul!

No idea whether they will have any effect but figure it might be worth a try.

What do others think?

I'm expecting DC3 in 4 weeks and have started drinking the tea - but Heath and Heather stuff which tastes lovely and is (I think) 48% raspberry leaf.

Did the same with nos 1 & 2 and had two straightforward births (1st was 10 hours, 2nd was 6 hours). I don't know whether it really works or not scientifically - but for me I'm happy to believe that it does indeed make contractions more effective and I wouldn't have dreamt of not drinking the tea this time around!

It won't do any harm so why not?

I was on the Heath and Heather teabags stuff until I read that you should really be taking the loose leaf variety. I got some Napiers Organic Loose Raspberry Leaf on Amazon and it tastes completely different. The Heath and Heather is a strong-tasting fruity mix of teas and is bright red. I found it a bit sickly but I prefer herbal to fruit teas anyway. The Napiers stuff is a very watery green colour and tastes of very little. In fact, I really like it and have been drinking pots of the stuff since it arrived earlier this week.

I've been on the capsules since 32wk (which is safe btw). I'm now on 6/day at 39wks.

It's shown to enhance uterine contractions so it won't start your labour but may shorten it due to stronger/more effective contractions.

6 a day? What strength are they? Should be getting a uterus of steel with those.

I was wary of exceeding the 2 a day dose at 375mg each but that doesn't sound like much in comparison!

They're 400mg and the bottle says 1 capsules 3 to 6 times daily...

Apparently though, the contractions could be more painful with raspberry leaf as they're more intense. Shall see...

whenhens sounds like we have the same ones as that's the dosage for mine too. I've been taking them since 34 weeks and trying to remember to get the full 6 a day in too. My body did not do contractions well first time (they came close together and lasted +1 minute from early on but I took AGES to dilate) so I am hoping that if I am more religious with the pills this time it might do something to help. At least I feel like I am doing something constructive anyway!