how many 'natural inducers' is it ok to use at the same time?

[mad4mybaby]

I mean things like curry, sex etc.

basically my dh is working abroad mon-fri and cant take time off until ive had the baby. I have 2yr old at home with me obv. I am signed with the birth center which is 20 mins away. My mum hopefully will come for my ds (depending how quick she can get away from work if in day time) and i have a friend (not very close though) locally who will take me to birth center if need be although wont be there for the birth.

I obv really want my dh to be there. Im quite insecure and he makes me feel safe, he wasnt any help physically with ds1 birth, was just there which is what i needed. I had a quick birth with ds1 and the MW are saying i need to be prepared for a quicker one and that if i fell i cant get to the birth center to call them and they send MW (if it wasnt for having ds1 at home id be having a homebirth)

anyway, this w/e i want to try as many natural inducers or whatever you want to call them to try to encourage baby to come fri-mon am. Before anyone critises me i wouldnt do anything silly like castor oil and i KNOW baby will come when hes ready but want to try to encourage. Im dreading spending another monday like yesterday in tears as i have another week on my own. I had a scare last week at 3.30am and it really panicked me. Im already taking RLT (tablets) and also have started EPO 1000mg a day.

any advice be appreciated

My DD was due on a Wed, DH came home on the Fri, we had sex, went for a curry and then had a long, long walk on tha Saturday, I went in to labour on the Saturday evening baby born Sun morning . I'm sure the natural inducers will only work if the baby is actually ready to come - have a go, you never know.

the thing about the long walks bothers me. i have spd and one side of my pelvis is out so i think itd do me more harm than good to do that!

I have no idea what other things there are because sex i really dont think i could face it. makes me feel sick thinking about it!

Thought id start off scrubbing my kitchen floor fri eve..

Curry i dont like but plan on having fri night. I read thai curry is best. that right?

Thought id then treat myself to a glass of wine (perhaps will make sex more viable option! )

I dont know any others??

bumping

I did the lot, apart from sex (couldn't face that!) Very warm baths with lots of lavender oil, raspberry leaf tea, nipple tweaking, long walks, everything I could think of.

DS was still 8 days late, although I like to think that if I hadn't done all that it would have been worse.

We were told pineapple in our ante natal class is one of those things that are supposed to trigger labour... but apparently the idea is to eat tons to irritate your bowel which can trigger labour. The same principle as castor oil I think (which my mum did to start her labour with me - I was two weeks late though - didn't work and she had an induction)

apparantly with pineapple its because it contains an enzyme called bromenaine (cant remember correct name) but youd have to eat like 7 fresh ones a day for it to work! I ate fresh every day with ds1 but like half a pineapple and he was born at 37+6 but dont believe that to be the pineapple! HAve had it every day this week but again dont think anything of it!

Oh well, at least you're getting plenty of vitamin c!

I'm taking 3 EPO capsules every day & I've been massaging the oil onto my cervix at night too. It seems to be softening it quite a lot. I'm definitely already dilated because I can feel my baby's head, but I still need some help with the effacement. I use my breast pump from time to time which does seem to regulate my contractions for a while (I've been getting pretty intense contractions anyway but they're very irregular) but then they stop after a while. I think the key with nipple stimulation is to stay active when you're not doing it, ie. going for a long walk.

I know babies don't come out until they're ready, but I'm still doing things every day to try & get things moving because I'm just so miserable!

I hope your little one comes soon.

I have just posted to you on a couple of other topics, but would say use as many types of natural inducers that you feel like. As I said on another topic I had irritable uterus like you and so good contractions going on much of the time, just not soften cervix, I am convinced that taking EPO internally at night worked for me. Pinapple definitely did not! My mum said that in her day as a nurse, hot bath was the way to go too. So if I were you I would have a curry, followed by hot bath and nipple stim, with a epo internally before bed and then try to relax and sleep to get some energy, just incase it actually worked and labour started.

Regarding quickness of birth, if you have a quick homebirth, then I don't think your 2 year old will be too phased by what is going on. He will be curious and just think it is strange but will probrably not think about it long. Two year olds are easily distracted. Do you have anyone who can get to you quickly? Neighbour etc. if it is fast.

Anyway I hope it all works out to plan for you.

Ahhh I remember this well! I went to +11, went in to labour at +10 but the baby took 30hrs to make an appearance!

I tried:
Pineapples
Various spicy foods (just needs to be spicy/hot rather than specifically a curry)
Walking
Bouncing religiously on the ball
Clary sage (burning and also rubbed in to bump)
Nipple stim (horrible, hated it)
Reflexology
Sex

Nothing worked, but what did work was finalising everything in my head and making a plan. Up until the night before labour started I was just going with it, being shoved closer and closer to induction whilst worrying that I should say no and just wait it out. Once I sat down and made concrete plans with my DP I went in to labour within 12h.