Thursday, 21 May 2009

• Natural Labor Induction - Have You Tried It?

   by Mama Monkey 

  

  I am in the home stretch of this pregnancy now - the last couple of weeks before the anticipated due date for baby boy #4. It is the phase where you become more and more uncomfortable every week. Your body starts to adjust to the lack of sleep that you will be getting after baby comes, as you are often too uncomfortable to sleep much. (And when you do finally fall asleep, you are awoken by the sudden urge to use the bathroom.)

  I am more uncomfortable with this pregnancy than I have been with the previous 3 and am very ready to be done being pregnant and meet our new baby boy. To add to my sense of urgency, some 'complications' arose and I needed to have another ultrasound done a week ago. Turns out baby and everything is fine and things were just thrown off because I was sick and retaining excess water. However, the ultrasound revealed that - at 37 weeks according to my due date - the baby was already 7 1/2 pounds. If you go with the estimate that babies at this point gain about 1/2 pound a week, we are talking about a 9 pound baby (and my other 3 were actually about a week late.) Plus, all of his head measurements actually measured at about 40 weeks meaning there is a big head in there for me to push out. So, as you can imagine, I (like many other pregnant women) am getting anxious for this baby to arrive. This has caused me to google 'natural labor induction' many times in the past week.

  Keep in mind here that I am not a fan of medical induction where the baby is forced to come out, ready or not. Natural induction - or, what some midwives call labor suggestion - uses methods that can help encourage labor to start or contractions to intesify but will not cause you to go into labor if your body is not ready. These methods (may) only help you go into labor a bit earlier than you would have on your own. None of them are guaranteed to start labor.

  There are many methods (if you can really call them that) of natural labor induction - some a bit more 'adventurous' than others.

  There are many different herbs that you can try that are believe to either stimulate the uterus or ripen the cervix. Some of these include black and blue cohosh, borage oil, evening primrose oil, goldenseal, mugwort and yarrow. These seem to actually be among the most controversial of the natural labor induction methods as some believe that they are just as dangerous as natural labor induction - especially if used without the supervision of an OB or midwife.  

  Nipple stimulation if one that, at first, may sound fun. But if you really look into what is suggested for this method - and take into consideration the sensitivity of a woman's breasts during pregnancy - really isn't all that fun. For this method, a large amount of nipple stimulation is suggested. It involves rolling your nipple between two fingers. Some sources say to do this on one nipple until a contraction starts, then stop with that nipple until the contraction stops and move to the other nipple. Other places talk about stimulating each nipple for 15 minutes each - alternating for an hour or more - until you start having regular contractions. No matter what source you look at, we are not talking about a small amount of stimulation here ladies and your nipples can get sore. (Though, it may be good preparation for the rigors your nipples will go through for breastfeeding.)

  Sex is another method that is often joked about. The thought behind this is that there are prostaglandins in semen that help ripen your cervix and that an orgasm produces oxytocin, the hormone that causes contractions. So, if you are comfortable enough to take a romp in the sack, it won't hurt anything and may help to start labor.

  Another, slightly less enjoyable, method is to take castor oil. Castor oil is a very thick, not very tasty oil that is often used for constipation. Basically, it causes you to have diarrhea and the cramps involved with the diarrhea can cause 'sympathetic' cramping of the uterine muscles. There are many different recommendations as to how to take the castor oil and how much, but know that it will probably mean spending a few hours (at least) on the toilet. Two of the concerns with this method are dehydration and the possibility of the castor oil passing to the baby and causing the baby to release meconium (though MOST professionals say there is not a link).

  There are also said to be pressure spots on a woman that can cause the uterus to contract - though you would of course need to know where these are and how to apply pressure to them to have any success with this method.

  Walking, squats and some other exercises are also said to help start labor as they can help to open the pelvis and encourage baby to move down further into the pelvis.

  One that seems to be in the middle between natural and medical is stripping of the membranes. Yes, it needs to be done by a doctor or midwife, but does not use anything unnatural - such as drugs. This involves your doctor loosening the amniotic sack from the area around the cervix via a pelvic exam. Some report that this can be very painful, while others say it is only slightly less comfortable than a normal pelvic exam and the discomfort is short lived. The main danger with this is that the bag of water can be accidentally punctured which can lead to needing to medically induce labor to get baby out if you don't go into labor within a certain time frame after the bag of water has broken.

  Like I said, none of these methods are guaranteed to start your labor and many of them are debated as to whether or not they have any effect. I have tried a few of them with this pregnancy and have not had any success yet. However, I tried castor oil with my second pregnancy and had my baby the next day - could just be coincidence though. It is best to talk to your OB/midwife before trying any of these methods. But if you are getting impatient towards the end of your pregnancy, most of these are not going to hurt - though there is also no promise of them helping.

  What do you think about natural labor induction methods? Have you tried any of them - successfully or not?

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