If sex is supposed to help bring on labour in late pregnancy..

[ScarlettInSpace]

Why doesn't it have the same effect earlier on?

Or is it an OWT? I'm sure I read somewhere there was something in sperm that helped dislodge the plug or have I made that up?

Random musings when I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep...

Because it doesn't really work mostly :) You'll go into labour when your body is good and ready.

Apparently the stuff in semen is supposed to thin the cervix, I believe this is where it came from... but the amount of semen it would take would probably kill your OH lol

Thin the plug* not cervix!

It did for me first time round

However i was 5 days overdue so it could have been that DD was ready to come anyway.

Or it could have been the pineapple or the spicy chicken curry!

Your cervix has to be 'ripe' and there's a hormone in sperm which can bring on labor. The reason it wouldn't work in earlier pregnancy is because the cervix isn't ready. Some pregnant women bleed after sex but I'm not sure what causes that.

I brought on my third labour by lying down in a quiet room and imagining that aq baby was crying, and I slowly went through the whole process in my mind of going to fetch the baby and breast-feeding her - my waters broke about an hour later, and contractions got under way very quickly. My idea was that when you breast feed you can feel your womb contract, and it worked in late pregnancy too. Result!!

I think it worked for me. 36 hours after having sex my waters broke at 37+6. Might've been a coincidence but I think it was the sex.