It seems that the internet is full of ideas for natural labor induction. Both of my babies were quite late and it seems I tried everything to make them come. I did end up medically inducing one child while the other came on her own, but still quite late.
If you are looking for ways to induce your baby naturally, you may want to think twice before you stress over all of these. I’ve found relaxing and working on keeping stress out of your day is the best thing possible while waiting for baby.
I thought it might be helpful to compile a little list of what didn’t work for me. Now, I’m not a doctor and don’t claim any of these to be scientific. It’s simply a list of things that I’ve found to be flukes from my own experience and that of my friends.
Some of these are downright fun to try. Labor inducing or not, I’ll take a pineapple any time of the day!
What didn’t work:
1. Pineapple – It’s yummy, so might as well give it a shot, but I ate it like it was going out of style and baby stayed in place.
2. Swimming – Honestly, swimming is AWESOME when pregnant. It can help the baby get in the right position for labor and best of all, for at least a few minutes you don’t feel like a cow and your back stops hurting. Pure wonderfulness. But, it definitely didn’t encourage my Little Man to come.
3. Bouncing on an excercise ball – Just like swimming, an excercise ball can help get the baby into the proper position for labor, which is helpful, but I’ve never seen it jumpstart labor.
4. Raspberry tea – Fun fact, I HATE tea. I could list things that I ate while living in Asia that would probably make you nauseous. I can eat some crazy stuff and keep a smile on my face, but don’t give me tea. I hate it. That being said, shortly after I passed my due date with Little Man a friend told me raspberry tea could help induce labor. I was desperate. I choked the nasty stuff down and…nothing. Still no baby. Just a foul taste in my mouth. Definitely not trying this again!
5. Walking – This one is probably the most common. Every body tells you if you walk a lot it will make the baby come. Not true. I walked laps around our apartment complex trying to get my very late baby boy to come, and well, he didn’t. I’ve even had nurses tell me this one isn’t true, but they often see moms tiring themselves out walking. If you are already in labor, walking can help move things along faster, if you are not yet in labor, it won’t make it start.
6. Pressure point on ankle – I have a friend who is a certified massage therapist. She even studied pressure points on the body that do different things. She showed me this special place on my ankle that if rubbed correctly should start labor contractions. She showed me how to do it and I massaged my ankle til it was almsot bruised. still no baby.
7. Stairs – Taking the stairs a lot should induce labor. so “they” say… I lived on a 2nd story apartment when I was pregnant with Little Man and we live on the 3rd story now. Needless to say I do stairs a LOT. I do stairs carrying my 24 pound Little Man and bags of groceries. Still no baby.
8. Intimacy – this one actually has “scientific” reasons why it should work, but it didn’t work for us :/
9. Chinese food – I ate a good amount of Chinese food when I was pregnant with Little Man. None of it made him want to come out of my belly.
10 Castor oil – The one thing I didn’t try. I’ve heard this one really works for some people, but it can be dangerous too, so I refrained from trying it. Sounds yucky anyway, I’m not sure that I would be able to do it even if I didn’t want to for fear of dehydrating myself and/or harming the baby in the process.
In conclusion – Many of these techniques can adjust baby’s position to get him or her to the right spot for an easier labor, some release the hormones that you need to jumpstart labor, , a few have have no real reason why they should work, but some moms still swear by them!
It seems that all of these techniques can help, but they won’t induce labor unless baby is ready. I think The best tip I can give is to stay calm and try to be patient. I know it’s hard to wait, but the waiting will all be worth it! Keeping stress to a minimum definitely helps!
I wonder now, if my obsessing over the natural labor induction techniques made my stress levels higher and actually discouraged him from coming out.
I’m not obsessing over these this time around, because I’ve learned that baby comes when baby is ready. Not when mama is ready. I just know that all the techniques I read in books and on countless websites didn’t work for me!
So what did work??? Going to the hospital and getting medically induced. We started the induction process at 10pm when he was 8 days overdue, and Little Man was born around noon the next day. (you can read his birth story here) It wasn’t what I had planned, but I have no regrets. Everything went smooth and in the end I had a healthy baby boy, and really, that’s what matters most.
With baby girl I’ve done plenty of the above, but I’m not expecting them to make her come. The only “extra” thing I’ve done this pregnancy is super fun bouncy dance parties with Little Man. We love putting on crazy music and hopping around the house. (I’m sure we look CRAZY when we do it, but it’s fun!) If anything should encourage her to come it should be that! she needs to come join the party!!! but things are progressing a lot better this time. Like I mentioned earlier I think this is because I’m not stressed out this time around. I’m at peace with most things in my life, and not worried about when she’s coming. She can’t stay in my belly forever!!! Though of course, I would prefer her to come sooner rather than later.
What about you? Did your baby(/babies) come by themselves? Did you try any of the things I listed and did they work for you?
*edit: Baby girl ended up coming 5 days late, with no induction (natural or medical)
Elise Klicko says
Intimacy worked 2 times for us before! :) Good luck!!!
Sarah Avila says
I have been induced 4 times out of 5. I tried castor oil with #2 and it didn’t work. With #4 I started using Evening Primrose oil capsules at around 35 weeks and then on my cervix at around 38 weeks. Intimacy also worked with us for #4 (but a lot of it and it started to feel like a chore and was no fun). But I did finally have a natural delivery.
Michelle says
Now you tell me about the walking. I walked miles and miles with all my pregnancies hoping to induce labour. AAAAAGGGGHHHHH! The only thing that really induced me was medically. Otherwise it’s all under God’s timing.
futurehope says
lol awww yeah I walked a lot trying to induce with my first. With my 2nd I still walk a lot, but I’m not expecting it to induce me, that’s just they lifestyle I have keeping busy with my little man :P
God’s timing is the best anyway! I’m just impatient! lol
April S. says
After having back and hip problems my whole pregnancy and wading through a winter of deep snow, I told my little man in the belly “Com’on buddy, any time now!” one morning scraping off the truck. Went in the house to help daughter get her shoes on, squatted down and my water broke. Daughter though I peed on her for a minute until I said “that’s the water around the baby, he’s coming!” She got all excited then and forgave me, LOL. I did have to keep walking at the hospital until I couldn’t stand it though – when I walked he would be in the birth canal – the minute I would lay down he would move up. Good luck!
futurehope says
awww that’s cute that your girl though you had peed on her. made me giggle! :)
great story thanks for sharing!!!
Brooke Leiberman says
I tried black cohash at my midwifes suggestion, but then my water broke and i did not have contractions!! I had to be induced too and I still did it w/o an epidural :)
futurehope says
I’ve never heard of that one! that’s crazy that your water broke with no contractions :(
I’m having LOTS of painful contractions, but no water breakage yet. (and the contractions usually don’t stay for longer than an hour at a time!)
way to go doing it with no epidural! I didn’t have one with my 1st but I did have some pain killer in my IV. epidural needles scare me, so that’s not really an option for me :P
Amy says
Great reminders for anxious moms! Though I would also add that I hate the term “late” for mom’s that go past their due dates. Due dates are SOOO inaccurate and even when calculated accurately they are only the top of a bell curve where the baby is most likely to come, but anything from 10 days to two weeks on either side of the “due date” is still perfectly normal. So “late” is an inaccurate term and can scare many first time moms into unnecessary interventions like medical inductions when they’re only a day or two past their due date. Significantly increasing their risk for c-section and other complications.
Penny Lane says
Oh I’m so glad you posted this at Deep Roots at Home this week! What a great read! I had 12 days of “prodromal” labor with Baby Love so I’m VERY familiar with LOTS of techniques that didn’t work. I’m headed to read you’re little guy’s birthday story now!
Debi and Charly @ Adorned From Above says
Paula,
Thank so much for sharing you what didn’t work tips with our Adorned From Above Blog Hop. I am going to have Charly read them and let her know to keep her stress down. She is 38 weeks and wants to be done. Praying for a healthy baby girl for you. Congratulations.
Debi
kbuckley says
I tried all but #10 (the oil) I just couldn’t bring myself to it. After the second was past due I talked with my OB who said even sometimes medically inducing labor won’t work if the baby and body are not ready. I guess my girls and body knew better than I did.
Harmony says
You know it’s raspberry leaf tea that’s supposed to help ripen the uterus, right? Not just raspberry tea. There’s a difference.
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