Castor oil to induce labour? Did it work for you?

[Kearaleigh12]

I was just wondering if anyone's used castor oil to induce labour & if it worked?
How long did it take for it to work? How much did you take? My midwife gave it the go ahead so just curious to people's experiences :)

Your midwife gave it the go ahead?!

Never tried it- if it doesn’t work, you’ll just have the runs.

If it does work, you’ll be in labour and have the runs at the same time. Can’t imagine anything worse.

I'm surprised your MW gave it the go ahead! There is zero evidence it works and it can cause painful contractions, foetal distress and increase the likelihood of meconium in the waters.

Personally I could do without having the shits in labour too..

Goodness, this takes me back! it only works if the baby is good and ready. I did it with my first, terrible sickness and runs (at least the tubes were empty) and it worked. I told my OH to remind me never to do it again. Worked with my second but was equally awful. but worked. Tried with my third who obviously wasn't ready and had hours of sickness and runs with no labour, I wouldn't really recommend it

I thought this was meant to be a dreadful idea. It either doesn’t work so you have diarrhoea or it does work and you have e labour with diarrhoea. I’d rather wait a bit longer for my baby!

Please think of the logistics! The only way it can have any effect on your uterus is by inducing such serious runs and/or vomiting that your stomach cramps induce your body to think it's in distress and start to expel the baby. Why the hell would you think that's a good idea?

I did it with my second many years ago and it worked and I had a very easy labour but I wouldn't recommend it. My baby was born very fast but if something had gone wrong, the swift labour might have damaged him. I should add that I wasn't told to take castor oil, I made the decision to take it because I had gone well over my date.

It didn't work for me, it didn't even get my bowels moving that urgently. There was meconium in my waters then when I did give birth, I doubt it was related but not you're looking for anecdotal proof it causes that..

Also I had to send my dm into the chemist to get it because they wouldn't sell it to me while I was obviously pregnant

I didn't try it due to the reported risk of fetal distress, as described up thread.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261437700CastorrOilSafetyyandEffectivenesssonLabourrInductionanddNeonatalOutcome

This is the most commonly cited study re risk of foetal distress.

My mum did and my Dad's memory was that he was clearing up poo for the whole of labour, he couldn't believe it