let's get it started (naturally inducing labor)
I have been measuring weeks ahead consistantly, and at my growth scan on the 31st, i may just be told that I can begin attempting to naturally induce labor!
My friends have went on a SPREE of telling me their best methods.
I know that I will be getting a pedicure soon, granted I find a salon that will touch my very pregnant feet, and I have a birthing ball I will be using! I also want to attempt to pump, in hopes of stocking up any extra colostrum i can possibly get!
I have heard a few other things (besides stairs, sex, spicy food, etc.)
Red Raspberry pills being one. Wondering if any of you have tried this or any other type of herb/supplement that DID work? My friend took them as directed, and was still pitocin-induced, but only had a 4 hour labor!
TIA!
Re: let's get it started (naturally inducing labor)
I would not really pump you only get so much colostrum. And the baby needs that right when the baby is born. So I would skip that and just rub your nipples and that kind of stuff.
But that is JMO
I can't do another post like this again! Paging Biblionerd... didn't we just do this yesterday?
You're 34w6d- your earliest u/s is the most accurate and you can measure ahead all you want but that makes it a bigger baby, not an older one. An early u/s isn't going to be at least 3 weeks off in the dating.
Leave the damn baby alone! Do you know what it's like to have a 35 weeker in the hospital? It sucks! DD measured big too, and she was big for her age, but that didn't make her any more ready to be born. Baby's come when baby's are ready. There's no medical reason for you to induce your baby, natural or not. Give your child the best start you can by letting them develop as long as they can where they're supposed to- on the inside.
Also, if a practitioner tells you at 35 weeks that you can begin doing anything to induce your baby that person needs to have their medical license revoked!
My baby has been measuring a couple of weeks ahead this last part of my pregnancy also. My growth scan at 34 weeks put her at 36 weeks. I'm still pregnant, and as uncomfortable as it is I know that labor will start when it's supposed to.
I don't think any natural induction method is going to work unless the baby is ready.
A friend of mine was sitting at 4cm and 75% effaced for several weeks. She tried everything in the book for self induction. Sex, PR oil, red raspberry tea, walking, and whatever else she could get her hands on. Yeah, she still ended up being induced at the hospital.
I agree with PP. Please let LO come on his/her own. I have been measuring ahead but that can mean several different things and since I was charting I know my due date.
My MW ok'd me to start drinking red raspberry leaf tea and taking evening primrose oil at 35 weeks, but these do not induce labor.
Exactly. We are all excited to meet our LO's, but it won't be worth it if we have to look at them through an incubator because they weren't ready. Let your LO keep baking.
I'm having deja vu... is it Groundhog Day??
Ditto everyone- leave your baby alone, it is too early to be forcing him out. And measuring ahead doesn't necessarily mean your further along. *sigh*
Her original post says that at her appt ON THE 31ST she may be told it's OK to start self-inducing labor... seems like she'll be 37 weeks then.
My Dr. and some nurses have said after 37 weeks, it's game on - none of those methods will really work unless your body is ready anyway, so after 37 weeks it seems like there's no harm in trying. I'd definitely not use the pump, unless it's in the hospital and using it to speed labor at that point!
I can't believe how difficult of a concept this is to grasp around here. Size does not equal full development. And measuring ahead of what? Ahead of standard baby size? I just don't get that.
FFS...leave your baby alone.
Hmmm...lets see. Using ME as an example I'll show you how dang impossible it is to naturally induce.
ME: 4+cm dilated, 90% effaced, lost my mucous plug already!!!!
I was due 3/15 with my Third child. I've been using the following methods to "get the party started".
Membrane Sweeping a week ago
Yoga ball (everyday)
sex
nipple stimulation
castor oil
meditation/visualization/prayer
this.
Holy Moley...people please stop trying to induce early! There is no need for it...and if there was your DOCTOR would do it for medical reasons only.
Just because my LO is measuring 2 weeks ahead does NOT mean he is 39 weeks along...it means he is a bit bigger than the norm. Nothing more.
And to start pumping early is ludicrous...baby needs that colostrum.
EDIT: and from a past post you said you were only measuring a few days ahead....nothing to get excited about.
Coming from someone who is on strict bed rest due to pre-term labor (at 33 weeks), please leave your baby alone. I don't care if it's measuring 42 weeks, savor the time your precious baby has to develop.
I'll probably start trying some of these things around 38 or 39 weeks. I don't think they'll work if my body isn't gearing up for labor yet anyway--but if it is, maybe they will work and maybe not. As a VBAC, I have limited options for inducing, and if the baby doesn't come out on his or her own, I'm probably looking at another c/s. So yeah, I'll do whatever I can that's safe to avoid that.
There are some studies finding nipple stimulation is effective at helping induce labor. It doesn't work for everyone (in fact, I tried it with my first pregnancy), but neither do Cytotec, Cervidil or Pitocin.
I love you dodge. Looooove you.
THANK YOU.
This is the dumbest post ever. Seriously. Keep that child in you. Why in the *** would you want to risk it? I lost all respect for you.
This, totally. I was 4 cm dilated from 38 weeks to 41.5 weeks and had to be induced. I also "measured ahead" but my daughter was born 7 pounds, 10 ounces. I tried EVERYTHING in the book short of blue and black cohosh and nothing worked. I tried castor oil (twice,) scrubbing floors, spicy food, evening primrose oil, stairs, walking, and a lot of sex. Sorry, unless you have a pitocin drip or amnio hook at home, you aren't going to be able to induce your own labor