Does pineapple bring on labour?

[mummyjanine]

Has any of these 'self induction' theories worked for you?i.e sex, curry, rasberry tea?

I ate a whole pineapple before I went into labour.

But then I might have started anyway without it. Plus they say you need to eat something ridiculous like 7 for it to work, just one whole one was enough to put me off pineapple for a while.

None of them work. Not a single one. In all tests they have all been shown to have no effect. There are theories such as pineapple starting labour based on a nugget of truth. Pineapples have an enzyme in them which is associated with labour beginning for example but to replicate it you'd have to eat 8 whole pineapples in one quick sitting, including the leaves and the skin. You couldn't do it. Ditto, prostaglandins found in semen are associated with labour starting but they aren't strong enough to start labour when taken in that form. And the type of prostaglandins found in semen, you'd be better off ingesting orally iyswim. It still wouldn't work though.

The only thing that works is chemical induction. You might find the odd person who had sex and then went into labour afterwards but for that one person, you'll find thousands who didn't. It's only ever coincidence. Or they'd ban sex and pineapple and curry in pregnancy.

A baby comes when it is ready and that's as it should be.

Raspberry leaf tea btw is taken as a uterine tonic to strengthen the uterus and make your second (pushing) stage more effective. Nothing to do with labour starting.

I ate about 2 of the silly things when I was due in an attempt to not go overdue along with lots of walking, bouncing on my ball, rasberry leaf tea, sex and probably a few more that I can't remember now! All that happened was I got terrible heart burn from the pineapple, tired myself out from walking/bouncing, don't know if the raspberry leaf tea did anything but it tasted revolting and sex was quite difficult with a massive bump!!!and then I was induced at 41+ weeks anyway so it was all a waste of my time.
Having said that induction was really not as terrible as everyone says (although it was my first so don't have any other labours to compare to) having a pessary put in was quite uncomfortable but my contractions started almost straight away and from pessary to birth was just over 12hrs!!!
Try whatever you feel like but don't be too hopeful and don't be too scared of being induced, I wish I hadn't wasted my mat leave before the baby stressing about going over and being induced rather then enjoying my last few baby free days....although now she's here she's the best thing in the world and I wouldn't go back to pre-baby days for anything although I wouldn't say no to a little me time every now and again
good luck x