Raspberry leaf capsules

[Cait93]

Hi, when would you recommend to start taking raspberry leaf capsules/tea? Personal experiences please! Thanks x

Hiya! My Mum was a midwife and advised for all of her patients and me of course! WARNING- IT ACTS TO RIPEN THE CERVIX AND STIMULATES NATURAL LABOUR TO BEGIN BUT IT MAKES CONTRACTIONS STRONGER AND LABOUR QUICKER BUT THEREFORE MORE INTENSE!! Don’t take the tablets, they don’t work, be brave and drink the tea- not gonna lie, it’s vile! Brew it in a lesser amount of water add honey and take it like medicine- hold your nose and ‘down the hatch’! Don’t start before 34 weeks and build to three strong doses a day - also helps make the post labour contractions stronger so your womb returns to normal size sooner. I took it for all three of my boys - labours were 6 hours for the first, 4 for the second and 2- yes-2! for the third! Good luck!

Interested to see if this works. My first was only a 3 hours labour without any tips and tricks!

I took drunk the tea from about 30 weeks. With DC2 the MW actually asked me if I'd been drinking it and said "oh good, this looks like it will be a nice easy one" and it was. First contraction at 11pm, baby arrived at 3.45 am

Asked Doc about this when expecting DC1 (25 years ago!) it gave her pre-eclampsia but she said everyone is different... I can't remember exactly how many weeks along when I started to drink the odd cup of the tea BUT had pre-eclampsia a few hours following birth and BP went up to 210/105... They gave me pill under tongue and had me on monitor checking every 10 mins all night long. Never used for DC2!

I know of a couple people who drank raspberry leaf tea and had horrendous,, super intense contractions during labour with no break in between them. Personally I stayed away from it and let my body do what it naturally does anyway, and I still had a quick labour.

We are all different and we will therefore have different opinions and experiences…. That’s why I put the warning in capital letters- no-one should ever expect pregnancy or labour to be a 100% positive and uncomplicated process- and I couldn’t promote the tea without also being clear that it is not without its potential difficulties. Raspberry leaf has been used for hundreds of years.. unfortunately its original use was to induce miscarriage but when used in the latter stages of a healthy pregnancy its ability to ripen the cervix and induce labour was recognised and is generally accepted. SOME women will have unwelcome reactions- but some also have adverse effects from pethidine/ gas and air/epidural- you can never know until you have any of these. To anyone who’s pregnant right now all I would say is to always follow medical advice and to be brave and strong x

I’m 33 weeks so will be starting the tea next week. I got the hot tea mama ones. They do say from 32 weeks on the box though!

I’ve taken with all 3 of my babies. First two were quick labours and just waiting on this one to begin but I would 100% recommend it. I do a mix of tablets and tea, the tablets are meant to be stronger if you get decent ones. You need to build up slowly starting from 32 weeks. So one a day 32 weeks, 2 a day at 34 weeks, 3 a day at 36 weeks and 4 a day at 38 weeks. If you find you get strong braxton hicks go down a dose for a bit longer. They don’t cause pre eclampsia like a pp suggested.

I used the capsules from Holland & Barratts for all three of mine but many years ago (all in their 30s). I didn't realise that you weren't supposed to take them early on at the time and took loads of them with my first, he was overdue, they used a drip, contractions were horrendous but all done in 3 1/2 hours, next was 4 hours on due date and the third (when I hadn't taken as many as kept forgetting as busy with other two) took 6 hours and was the worst labour. I felt that they helped.

My midwife advised the extract tablets taken for the last 4 weeks of pregnancy, one 3 times daily. They are so much better than messing around with tea. They are absolutely amazing. Both babies born v close to due date and 1st labour 6.5 hours only, and 2nd 2.5 hours. Everyone I know who took them had really good labours. Holland and Barrett do RL extract.

I had the tea from 33 onwards. Didn't taste bad, had it with honey.
Unfortunately for me I was overdue at 42 weeks, had extremely painful contractions with little break inbetween but my cervix wasn't opening fast. Was in labour for three days. I think the tea contributed to the painful contractions but the rest may have just been bad luck.

I took the capsules from around 35 weeks I think. I don't think they did anything for me, my son was born 12 days overdue after 4 inductions.