Inducing Labor Naturally At Home

[Heat]

Is there a way to induce my labor naturally, at home?

[pokeyAC]

Sex/orgasm, nipple stimulation and castor oil are very popular DIY induction methods.  If you take castor oil, take it in the morning so it doesn't keep you from sleeping at night.  It can be mixed in an omelet or smoothie to make it taste better.  I would do some research on the second 2 options before you start.

[diymotherhood]

I can certainly understand the wish to induce labor and get things going, but even natural DIY induction methods are not guaranteed to work. I gave birth unassisted to my third child a month ago and when I delivered him I was 43 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I had tried castor oil a week before with no results (well yes, I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and had some contractions that went nowhere), and sex (doggie-style since you get the sperm closest to your cervix that way). Neither worked even though I was very far along.

In the end my son weighed only 7 lbs 10 oz which is average size and surprised us (we thought we would be much bigger). Next time I will definitely just wait the baby out. Nothing will happen to you when you go past your due date. Your baby is fine in the uterus and labor will start whenever you are ready.

By the way, you are not really late until you go past 42 weeks (most births happen between 38 and 42). But every baby and every pregnancy is different. Some just "cook" longer and there is nothing wrong with that.

That said, other methods I had heard but did not try are: spicy foods (which probably won't work if castor oil doesn't since the premise is the same: to irritate your bowels), accupressure (there are pressure points that are supposed to help induce labor: webbing between your thumb and index finger and one on your lower leg), Primrose oil (supposed to get the cervix ready, taken either orally or vaginally).

I wish you all the best with your pregnancy and hope you are more patient than me. Try to distract yourself by planning an activity that gets you out of the house every day. Your baby will come. Until then try to enjoy him or her where he is.

[dayiscoming2006]

I don't recommend inducing unless you have a real need for it. Another idea is to take a Red Raspberry leaf tincture. Basically reallllly strong tea. There's info online about it. I went to 41 weeks with my third after giving birth at 38 and 39.5 weeks with my previous two.

[JamieCatheryn]

I feel really strongly that spontaneous labor generally has the best outcome, as it won't really kick in as often without baby in the right position and cervix ready to go, and baby mature enough to come out. At home, natural methods can still be too drastic and make for bad labors. Natural prep methods like sex, exercise, evening primrose oil, red raspberry leaf, partridgeberry, that stuff gets you closer to birth very gently so it's harmless. But castor oil or an herbal tincture with cohosh, walking, and breast pumping might get labor to kick in if you're way overdue (over 42 wks) or waters have broken, something like that. I've used 2 Tablespoons castor oil before, at 42 weeks, because I was constipated so it could help that and to see if it would kick in labor. That's a low dose so if you are very due maybe that's harmless too. I got irregular contractions for a while then started early labor about 6hrs later.

[queenrilly]

I don't think there's ever any reason to induce. Your baby will come when it's the right time for him/her to make an appearance. I find inducing to be like the whole cesaeran to make time for thanksgiving or christmas.

sex is probably your best bet if your insistant on it. google evening primrose oil.

[amberskyfire]

If you have to induce then baby isn't ready to come which means you and baby are probably going to have serious problems. Don't induce. Just wait for labor to start. Happy birthing! :)