What worked for you to start labour

[Oneandabean]

So I know baby will come when ready, but I’m due on Wednesday and I feel huge and fed up and this lockdown isn’t helping as I’m quite literally sat here waiting for labour to begin. So just wondering if anyone can tell me their stories of how labour started for them?
It’s my second baby but induced with my first so natural labour is new.

Time. Unless there is something wrong they come when they are ready. Mine were both nearly 42 weeks. Sorry, I know it’s frustrating

If you find anything let me know lol.

37 weeks and had on/off aches for about a week, plug is coming away in bits too plus I literally feel like baby's head is super low so sitting is uncomfy.

A five mile walk 😩
I was shattered then boom labour

I tried everything!! Baby arrived 11 days over. But on the day I went into Labour I washed both cars and weeded the patio. The day before was also my second sweep. Not sure if either of those contributed but I just kept moving! Housework, walking, gardening!

After throwing up my usual 3 times (HG) I eventually got into town in the afternoon and bought 2 pairs of kitchen curtains for windows that had been bare for the previous year .
Stood on a chair and clambered onto the work surface to hang them .
2 hours later my waters broke :)

@emsyj37
I love your answer!
You said lying down in front, what's the deal with the bump? Were you slightly twisted to one side or full on front face?!

Here's all the this that didn't work:

Clary sage oil
Nipple rubbing
Ball bouncing
Pineapple
Curry
Sex
Walking
Cleaning
2 sweeps
Induction pessary
Oxytocin drip
Breaking my waters

She'd still be in there if it wasn't for an EMCS. She's still an awkward monkey too 😂

I showed no signs on my due date so went on a long walk & ate lots of pineapple, next day also went on a long walk & had a spicy curry and then the next morning I went into labour I think for me it was the long walks as I was super lazy in my pregnancy it was probably the most I'd moved in months. Everyone's different I've heard from friends that they tried a breast pump & using an exercise ball

@cat709 oh gosh I wasn't on my front, I was on my side!! I just meant he entered from behind!

2, yes 2 fresh pineapples.

Sitting on yoga ball bouncing up and down

Baby 2 was 8 days late. So 2 fresh pineapples and a walk.

Still waters didn’t break until I was in the yoga ball in the Labour ward and they could fathom why she wasn’t coming out. ..... waters hadn’t broken. They broke them and5 minutes later she was out!

@LittleRa

Sitting on yoga ball bouncing up and down

PS I had my DD at 38+4, i had been for a long walk on the beach with a friend and had been bouncing on the yoga ball leading up to it. I was in a poor relationship with her dad, well ups and downs but just to say there was definitely no sex. I’m now 33 weeks pregnant with my second DD (DP’s first baby). We have been having sex, so will see how that impacts things. I’ll also be doing walks and yoga ball again!

A sweep and then sex right after (advised by the midwife lol)

@emsyj37
Was going to say!! Thought there was a trick I'm missing!! X 🤣

Castor oil. But this was a long time ago. Not saying I would recommend it but it worked (unless it was pure coincidence that I went into labour the next morning 🙈)

Stop waiting, do some stuff (whatever you would do if not pregnant) and plan things for 2 weeks time.

Ds1 I put in fence posts
Ds2 I went to a ceilidh
If you're feeling fat and uncomfortable do something physical (sex, gardening, walks, whatever). I'm not being unsympathetic; being frustrated and feeling a bit crap isn't likely to produce the hormones needed for labour.
I'm due dc3 in 5 weeks and hoping I can just carry on as normal until they arrive (and afterwards too tbh)

@SanFranBear actually been playing assassins creed Valhalla so maybe I should find a really annoying bit 😂

I’ve tried a lot of these, except spicy food and pineapple, one because they’re absolutely vile and two because I’m trying to avoid anything that irritates the bowels.

As for doing what I’d normally be doing, I’d normally be working but finished a week ago, already cleaned the house arranged baby’s stuff, got some meals in the freezer.

Lockdown is such a pain, just end up sitting about waiting for things to begin

Had sex this morning and now pretty sure my plug is coming away in crazy amounts, hell of a lot of discomfort and generally feeling off now. (or his swimmers are coming back out and I am just too exhausted to feel OK - sex at 37 weeks is a work out lol)

I was induced with my first as well OP and I tried everything to avoid it. No word of a lie I ate an entire pineapple every single day, spicy food for every meal, nipple stimulation, about 4 cups a day of raspberry leaf tea, long baths each night with clary sage oil, and I walked for miles each day. Not only did all that not start labour, even my first induction couldn't do it! I had to have a second induction a week later before I finally went into labour.

With my second it got to about 11pm on my due date and still no sign of labour. I was really angry thinking about needing to be induced again. I wrote a long angry message to my friend about how the day was almost over and I was about to be overdue again. Literally 5 minutes later my contractions started and about 4 hours later I'd not only given birth but come home from the hospital. I heard its more common for labour to start naturally the second time around so fingers crossed for you.

OP it’s precisely because they stimulate the bowels that they work! Same muscles apparently.

@Benjispruce2 not the same muscles but right next to each other and it’s thought one stimulates the other, personally causing bowel issues isn’t a path I want to go down. Maybe it’s because I know a few midwives and they all say they hate women trying the hot curry and pineapple routes as it makes things extra messy 😬

So I don’t know what exactly worked, but the day I went into labour I had a sweep 20 hours before, had sex, went for a long walk, bounced on a yoga ball, ate a really hot curry and a whole pineapple. This was on my due date with my first baby, as I said I did all of the above so couldn’t pin point which (if any) worked but my waters did break and then I went into labour!

O and I didn’t have a poo accident during labour! Lol