Castor Oil

548 Views 7 Replies 8 Participants Last post by indiegirl, Jun 22, 2004

newlife

Discussion Starter · Jun 21, 2004

I was reading another board ,and a lot of women on there used castor oil to induce labor. One person said that she mixed it with orange juice and it made both of her labors shorter and easier. How about ya'll?

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momsmyjob

· #2 · Jun 21, 2004

I did it once with my 3rd and let me tell you the taste is awful

uke. I mixed it with Orange juice, drank it and spent the rest of the night in the bathroom. :LOL didn't do a thing for me.

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mehndi mama

· #3 · Jun 21, 2004

Let's see......made me throw up, gave me the runs, didn't do a damn thing to get labor going, and when the experience was all done, I told my midwife to never EVER again even MENTION castor oil im my presence.

In general, labor induction of any sort is just messing with nature and asking for problems of one sort or another. Babies come out when they're "done", and any encouraging on your part is either going to have potential dangers, or they aren't going to work unless the time is right anyway.

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cottonwood

· #4 · Jun 21, 2004

We used it to augment labor, meaning that I had been having contractions for a long time and was tired and had an empty stomach. It was hell on earth for me, and I would not do it again under any circumstances. I've heard that people that try to induce with it usually don't have the problems that I had, simply because their bodies are not already in a compromised state. But it also probably just depends on individual tolerance.

Aside from the misery, though, it can get through the placenta and affect the baby. It can give baby the runs just as much as mama. So then you're dealing with meconium and possibly distress. IMO not worth it. I have to agree with mehndi mama too, any means of inductions, whether "natural" or not, will interfere to some degree with the natural process. And personally I would rather put my trust in the natural process than in castor oil.

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nikirj

· #5 · Jun 21, 2004

If I even hear the words "castor oil" I get nauseous. I took it for non-pregnancy-related reasons but it was awful. I spent 6 hours in the middle of the night (well, from 12 to 6am) on the toilet, literally streaming out the rear. I threw up. I felt sick for a week. I couldn't imagine doing that at the same time as going into labor.

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3 little birds

· #6 · Jun 22, 2004

I resorted to castor oil out of desperation. I wa having a home VBAC and was going to have to go to the hospital for tests if baby wouldn't come because he was 2 weeks late. I was afraid that if I went to the hospital at all, they would never let me out. So I drank 2 ozs. of castor oil, chased it with oj and took a nap.

I woke up with the runs (to put it mildly

) and labor was on it's way. I had a very quick labor, but spent most of it in the shower or using the restroom.

I would not do it again, except as a very last resort.

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Lucysmama

· #7 · Jun 22, 2004

I tried it, too. I was 39 weeks pregnant and all it did was give me explosive diarrhea. I ended up totally dehydrated because of it. Yuck. I didn't go into labor at all, I just spent the night pooping.

I can't imagine taking it just before labor or while IN labor. You could spend your labor dealing with contractions AND diarrhea.

Not fun!

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indiegirl

· #8 · Jun 22, 2004

I used castor oil with my second birth--my midwife said that Orange Juice/CO is terrible for the body and dangerous. She had me mix it with a pint of high-quality icecream (meaning, high fat), one cup of whole milk and the CO. The fat in the CO binds to the fat in the other stuff and it doesn't sit in your intestines--instead, you digest it and it works its magic. I had one mild case of runs with no cramping. My labor started four hours after I took the milkshake with my water breaking. It was amazing!

My ctx were not terrible at all (ie, more so than w/o it) and my labor was six hours from start to finish.

Jesse

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