Castor Oil or Cervidil?

[blessed2bmommy]

My midwife is giving me a choice what I want to do if I make it to my next appt on Wed.

My DD was induced with cervidil. Part of me thinks I should just stick with this since I know it works. However, it seems more invasive then castor oil.

I've heard so many bad things about castor oil, though!

What are your experiences. What would you do?

[neldabean]

I took castor oil with my last pregnancy. I would do it again if I had to. I only used the bathroom twice. If your body is open and ready for labor it works if not you are on the pot. If it was me I would try the oil and if it does not work you can go with plan b. Good luck.

[jannk]

I did castor oil w/ my son. It didn't do anything - no side effects at all. I did lose the mucus plug that night but that's it. We ended up doing cervidil which also didn't do anything so then it was on to pitocin which did the trick.

Of the three people I know who used castor oil, none of them found it all that bad. Two went into labor within twelve hours of using it.

[vanislandmama]

Crashing from August, but had to respond. With my second, I had my water break and inconsistent contractions for 2 days. Really wanted my home birth so I tried Castor Oil. Took it with a chocolate protein shake and I went into labor an hour later. Totally worked for me. I agree with earlier post. Doesn't hurt to try it. I didn't have any negative side effects, but I do agree that it most likely only works if your body is ready for labor.

[jdg]

I agree with the pps that castor oil will only work if your body is just about ready for labor anyway. You can try it but if you need something "stronger" then it's not going to have the effect you want.

I had to be induced due to pre-e at 38 weeks and my cervix was completely closed. There was no way castor oil was going to do it. It took 4 doses of Cervidil and about 24 hours, but that did the trick and got me started dilating.

[megviolet]

Neither! I mean, no easy answer. If it was me i probably would be more comfortable with an OB or midwife doing the cervadil... it's more of a controlled environment. Castor Oil is risky too, and more unpredictable. It would be awful to take oil and then cause the baby to pass meconium so when your water breaks it is stained and leads to more intervention... you know?
Do you need to induce at this point?

[pippasmum]

Have you thought about acupuncture? I was due to be induced on Thursday and went and had an acupuncture treatment on the Tuesday and started labour myself at the hospital just before they were going to start my pitocin drip. I can't say for sure that it was the acupuncture but it won't make you sick like I have heard that castor oil can and I know from my last induction that cervadil can be no fun. Good luck!

[MommatoAandA]

Just wanted to crash and chime in here. I used Castor Oil with my last baby and it worked well.

I also wanted to add that the fact that there is correlation between meconium and castor oil is just that, a very weak correlation. There is no evidence that one causes the other. In fact, most moms who use Castor oil, tend to be overdue, which being overdue in and of itself increases the risk of passing Meconium. It's completely unproven that Castor oil has that effect.

Are they going to use the castor oil vaginally? They can give you a slow, stretching cervical massage with the castor oil. I have heard that is more successful than taking it orally. Castor oil taken orally stimulates the bowel muscles, which run paralell to the vaginal/uteran muscles, so in theory, all hte contractions of your bowels emptying stimulates contractions in the uteran muscles. But internally it has been shown to help dialation, like Cervadil.

Good luck! HTH.