Anyone use 5 week formula (5W)?

[caterpillar]

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I know it contains raspberry leaf, some form of cohosh, maybe evening primrose? Anyway, you start taking it during the 35th week, and it's supposed to help soften/loosen up ligaments and tissues in preparation for birth. Any experience with this?

THANKS!

[mamamilkers]

This came highly recommended to me by another mama, but when I asked my mw about it, she didn't think I should be taking something with either of the cohosh herbs in it

I would love to know what others have experienced!

[rere]

The cohosh herbs seem to be controversial.I read up on them quite a bit.There were lots for and against.I ended up not taking them.I did take primrose and red rasberry leaf tea.I don't know what help they did or not.Sorry.I know they didn't hurt anything - if that helps.

[indie]

I didn't start taking it until 40 weeks and I only did because I was starting to freak that the baby was coming later than my first. Yes, that was dumb, dumb, dumb. I don't know if it made any difference.

[Shell_Ell]

I did a cohosh tincture from weeks 38-40 and drank RRL from 33 weeks on, and I still had a 36+ hr labor. I don't really put much faith into it. The RRL helped with BH contractions, but not much more than that.

[caterpillar]

Someone raved about 5W to my husband, so we mentioned it to my midwife and she said, "Oh yeah, I have some right here!" She had given me some evening primrose oil capsules, and then she "muscle tested" me for the 5W. My body told her that it didn't want the 5W, but wanted some homeopathic stuff instead (cimicifuga, caulifphylum, and arnica).

I'm pretty open to new ideas, but I truly think that this whole muscle testing thing is totally bogus. I also once saw a program called "The Memory of Water" on PBS, which studied homeopathy in depth and in a (seemingly) fair way, and determined that homeopathic rememdies are simply no different than placebos. I'd love to hear different opinions on this.

Anyway, when MW told me there was cohosh in the 5W, I said, "Now this is for birth PREPARATION, not INDUCTION, right?" She confirmed that -- that evidently it's not enough cohosh to prematurely induce.

So, I remain unsure. I think I may go ahead and spend the almost $18 for it (the 5W), and continue with my primrose and RRL tea. In the mean time, although I love my MW, I sure wish she'd stop *asking my supplement bottles* how many I should take and then pressing on my arm for the answer!http://www.mothering.com/discussions...lies/dizzy.gif

[heidi_m]

I'd never heard of the 5W thing til your original post, but I will tell you that my husband is a psychologist and he started telling me years ago, when he was still an undergrad and in a psychopharmacology course, that there have been dozens (maybe hundreds?) of studies showing that EVERY drug has a placebo effect - depends on the person and their problem. But there have been lots and lots of studies done that show that even the people in a study who get the "sugar pill" or placebo and don't know it but think it's the real drug report that they have improved symptoms because of it...

That being the case, if what I'm going to take is going to have at least a 50% placebo effect (which dh has also told me) I'd rather it was homeopathic, which if properly administered should have NO side effects, than be some drug or chemical that could do who-knows-what to my body.

Maybe that's why I'm so crazy... too many years of taking Tylenol!

[Earthylady]

I took 5W from Nature's Sunshine while I was pg. Started it at 35 weeks and baby came on 39weeks 1 day. It definately made the BH stronger...but BH don't feel anything like real contractions. As for a muscle toner though...it worked.

here's a link - http://www.healthywarehouse.com/nspProduct/1120.asp

Mandy

[mamamicky]

I took it with two pregnancies

2nd pregnancy I went 41 wk 4 days, had a 3 hour labor.

3rd pregnancy, I went 41 wks 1 day, water broke at noon on 41 weeks exactly, baby born next morning after less than 2 hrs hard labor.

I don't know what it did or didn't do.

First labor (a girl, others were boys) was 40 wks, 4days, 6 hours start to finish. I used NO herbs, no epo, nothing to "help" or prepare but classes and reading.

So, I don't know that it helps, but I don't think it hurts.

Blessings,
Micky

[caterpillar]

Thanks, all! I went ahead and picked up a bottle from my MW today. We'll see...

[caterpillar]

Okay: took 2 pills late last night. MW says I only need 2 per day, not 6. Woke up this morning with menstrual-like cramps. Yuck! Could it be related? Maybe the black cohosh? This concerns me. Perhaps it's total coincidence, or perhaps the 5W is causing some early "action". Early action wouldn't be a bad thing, I suppose; it'll only make the "real" action that much shorter. But somehow I feel unsettled if I have caused something to happen to my body (that otherwise wouldn't have happened naturally) by taking a pill, herbal or not. Hmmm... Here I thought I wanted this stuff!

Anyone else experience this light cramping with 5W?

[lilyka]

I took it and highly recommend it. it really effected me though. I started with 2 capsules the first week (one at breakfast and one at supper), three the next week (one with breakfast, lunch and dinner) and then 4 on the 3rd week (1 with breakfast, 2 with lunch and 1 with supepr) and started labor immediately after my first dose of two capsules at once. I had a very short (2 1/2 - 3 hours from start to finish, completly painless cramping then 5 minutes of hard labor) easy labor. (easy for me, poor Ava would have fair better with a slightly longer more gradual labor).

I would think the cramps are definitely related. If you are going to do two tablets spread them about 12 hours apart. or perhaps start with just one a day. or even half. I never ever react to herbs positively or negatively but I would notice definite differences in things within minutes of taking them.

[megny]

I took it with my first, it was routinely recommend for all women by the CNMs at the birth center we were going to.

I started taking it at 36wks, had my daughter at 36wks 6days. And I did start with light menstrual type cramping, but that were continuing for hours on end at regular, albeit long (15min) intervals... I was suspicious of it, but the midwives poo-poo'd it and said I had an "irritable uterus". After three days of this "irritability", my labor hit a regular stride, and she was born the next day.

After dealing with all the issues that came with my early-ish baby (jaundice, major suck-swallow-breathe problems), I'd never take it again. Maybe it had nothing to do with it, but its hard for me not to make that connection.