3rd Trimester

Castor oil vs pitocin?

Going in Monday for induction but have heard how painful those labors can be and curious about self induction with CO. Any advice on one vs the other? Nervous about both but want the lesser of evils I suppose.

Re: Castor oil vs pitocin?

  •  I wouldn't advise castor oil, there is too much risk for complications for your baby and sometimes all it does is make you poop alot and have stomach pains. Pitocin sucks for most people and makes labor more painful than it is. I've heard nipple stimulation and sex are the best things. Me personally I took red raspberry tea leaf pills that did an awesome job for my cervix and uterus and made my labor pretty smooth, but sex did it for me lol good luck just do what you can to make sure the baby is healthy and protected the best way possible! 

     

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  • Castor oil can be pretty dangerous, as it can cause you to become dehydrated & can also cause baby to pass meconium before birth, which can lead to infections, NICU stays, etc.  Plus it won't do anything other than make you poop a lot unless your body is actually ready to start doing something.

    Generally, an induction starts with something to soften the cervix (like Cervadil) which for some women is enough to trigger contractions.  If you're already dilated/effaced, they might start by just breaking your water, which also triggers natural contractions for some women.  If you have to use pitocin, ask your doc to start you on the lowest possible dose and not to increase it unless you aren't responding to the dose you're on. 

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  • I was on pitocin for 3 hours before they broke my water. They werent worse than my natural contractions. I didnt last an hour after they broke my water. I wasnt in pain after I got my epi

     I think the lesser evil is doctor monitored medication. My MW told me to do every trick in the book BUT castor oil. You absolutely need doctor permission, but my MW said a tiny bit of pumping was fine as long as I did it when LO was active and I wasnt getting crazy contrax with it. For the record, it did noting.

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  • I don't have personal experience, but my husband's aunt took castor oil with just one of her pregnancies (9 in all) and this baby was born before they could get to the hospital. I don't know if it was because of the castor oil, but the rest of her labor and deliveries took forever (the castor oil baby was in the middle of the 9, so it's not like it was her last baby).
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  • If you don't have a personal or family history of medication reactions, Pitocin is definitely the lesser of those two evils.  Castor oil usually causes dehydration, which tends to lead to fetal distress.  Combating that dehydration pretty much eliminates the efficacy in kick-starting labor.  Even if you CAN avoid the dehydration AND kick-start labor, I'd rather not start labor with the exhaustion of violent diarrhea.

    If you do have a history of medication reactions, try everything else before considering either.  

    If you end up on pitocin, try to get them to start with a low-ish dosage.  

    DS born 12/2012
    Little Squeaker due 6/2015
  • Please don't use castor oil. I took some the night I went into labor with my daughter and there was meconium and my daughter had heart decelerations and we had to have the NiCU doctors come. Plus, my contractions were terriblethey STARTED suddenly and were extremely painful and I had 30 second betweeen. They were so bad I was too tense to relax enough to actually dilate, but I was only at 1 cm and begging for the epidural. They gave it to me at 1, which is unheard if, and 4 hours later my baby was born.

    I am lucky she is healthy, and I would strongly urge anyone NOT to make the mistake I made. It all may have happened without the castor oil, but if I hadn't been lucky enough for her to ultimately be healthy, I would never have been able to live wih the thought my actions could have been what hurt her.

    Please don't do anything your doctor doesn't recommend. Start walking like crazy and bring on the sexy time!
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker BabyFruit Ticker
  • Considering castor oil causes contractions d/t dehydration from GI issues- that sounds unhealthy and dumb to me.

    Pitocin is administered by your doctor based on their medical opinion- so yeah- I'd go with that if my doctor recommended it. 

    Surprise BFP after 5 yrs of TTC
  • Just don't be afraid to speak up for yourself with pitocin and ask them to go slow.

    I had pitocin and it ended up being great, really. My nurse was very careful not to let my contractions get too close together too fast. I have no non-augmented labor to compare to, but I can't imagine regular contractions would have been much less painful, really.

    I vote no on castor oil

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