Did anyone take extra vitamin C to make your water bag strong? Did it work?

[LadyJennifer]

My water broke early with my son, so with this one I've been faithfully taking extra c (like 1200 mg/day) to make sure my water didn't break early (though now that I'm term, I almost wish it would break! lol).

Anyway, I noticed a lot of the moms on here had their water break first. Did any of you take extra C to make your bag stronger? How much, and did it work?
 

Oh, and while I'm asking that, if you did take extra c, did you tear?

[jennyfah]

I took vitamin C throughout my pregnancy and especially focused on it during the last 5-6 weeks of pregnancy.  The waters released just before I pushed his head out.  I could feel the bulging bag with my fingers: it was so hard and strong, I was really amazed!  I guess I'd imagined that it would feel more like. . . I don't know, something thin and delicate.  But it felt more like a vinyl waterbed liner.  

I did have a very small tear this time, but we didn't even suture it and it has healed beautifully.  I didn't take C with my last pregnancy and had a second degree tear (w/sutures) and didn't take C with my first, but that was an episiotomy-to-almost-fourth degree extension so I don't count that at all.  Let me just say that going from an almost-fourth degree to a barely first-degree tear is amazing!  Night and day difference.  


ETA:  I was taking about 1000 mg./day.  

[ursusarctos]

I did not take extra C, just tried to get the RDA (like 60 mg I think?), though towards the end I'm sure I got more because I was gorging on strawberries almost every day Also took Floradix which has some C in it. I never took very big doses though. My water didn't break until I started pushing. I did have 2 small tears that required a few stitches, but nothing huge or traumatic.

I'm curious, how is that vit C = stronger water bag mechanism supposed to work? You'd think it would be dependent on a lot of factors.

[LadyJennifer]

C is really good for strengthening connective tissues - of which both vaginal tissues and water bag tissues are:)

[pjs]

I took a lot of vit c during my prior pregnancy- it was during the swine flu "epidemic" of 2009, and my son was born in the caul. I had a small tear which got one stitch, though mw said if I could stay in bed ( impossible with three other kid's) it would've healed fine on it's own. This time, I took vit c over the winter, to ward off colds and such, and my bag was really, really strong. Midwife did ultimately break it, but had a hard time doing so. Again, I had one small tear that got one stitch but would've healed fine on it's own if I could say in bed ( now truly impossible with four other kid's).

[Lynann]

I'm curious about this too. I've been taking 1000mg a day since week 20 at the advice of my MW due to my waters breaking prior to labor last time. Like you Lady Jennifer I'm now kind of wishing they would just break and get things going, but I know that since the baby isn't in optimal position yet having the waters intact during labor will be good and allow the baby to move better. Last time DS got cemented in a bad position which made my progress really slow and ultimately led to my c/s. I'll even take the baby being born in the caul over transfer to hospital this time.

[nald1]

I personally took a lot of C both times.  They broke my water in hopes of speeding up a VERY slow painful labor with DD.  I didnt have any tears at all- the oNE thing I am happy about in my first labor :)  Well, that and a healthy beautiful baby girl that arrived safe and sound, OF COURSE!!!!  

[Italiamom]

I took 2000mg of vitamin C daily (plus another 250mg in my prenatal, I believe), starting at the end of the first trimester.  And my water broke (with a pop, not a slow leak), about 5 hours before contractions began.

[SouthernStormy]

I wish I had known about it early during my pregnancy. Despite the tons of reading I did, I don't recall reading the vitamin c= stronger bag of waters until just a few weeks before my DD. While I drink lots of OJ and get vitamin C through other sources, I don't think I was really taking enough for it to make a difference. Given that my bag of waters broke pretty early on this time, I will definitely be increasing the amount of vitamin C next time

[*Jessica*]

I didn't with either of my pregnancies with the boys and my water broke at the beginning of both of those labors.  I did take an extra 1000mg for most of this pregnancy and the doctor had to break my water to get my labor to progress.  I also had only a minor tear that didn't require stitching. 

[openpollination]

I had an emergen-c almost daily starting around 36 weeks, and my water broke about 2 hours before contractions started (my entire labor was 11 hours start to finish). I also took fermented cod liver oil daily through the whole pregnancy, which is what I suspect led to a much stronger bag of waters - more so than the vitamin C. Because I went to 41w4d my midwife told me I should stop taking the CLO around 36 weeks next time! Haha.