5 Natural Ways To Induce Labour
Babies arrive on their own schedule but sometimes mums just get tired of being pregnant and can’t wait to hold their baby in their arms. Inducing labour is an option many women will consider late into their pregnancy. If you ever consider inducing labour naturally, there are a number of options you can try.
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1. Exercise
If you are having contractions but are not yet in labour, taking a walk can help get things going. There movent of your hips in motion help bring the baby into position to be born.
Manu mums who have used this method to induce labour agree that it actually feels good. Because walking puts you in an upright standing position, you are using gravity to help the baby descend into the pelvis. But even if you don’t go into full-blown labour, you are at least getting some exercise.
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2. Have sex
Sex is the most well-known trick besides exercise to induce labour and it works because semen has a natural hormone involved in the onset of labour. This method works best if the semen stays on the cervix, to thin and dilate the opening.
The downside is many women do not care for intercourse at the later stage of pregnancy, but this technique still proves effective with simple loving activities and generous foreplay since female orgasm has been known to open the cervix up to two centimetres.
Your partner can gently stimulate your nipples, to prompt the release of oxytocin. Some women are said to have had contractions swithin 20 minutes of gente stimulation. If a half hour or so goes by without contractions, stop and maybe try it again another day.
3. Eat spicy food
No scientific backing to this one but some people swear that eating extra spicy food caused their baby to show up even faster. You could try it, but if you have a full stomach when you are in labour, you might vomit and see your spicy food again in less pleasant circumstances.
4. Try Nipple Stimulation
Some women massage their nipples as a way to induce labour. This stimulation brings about the release of oxytocin-a contractions inducing hormome. The contractions induced by oxytocin sometimes evolve into labour.
Most practitioners are not enthusiastic about this method of inducing labour, because it has been known to lead to excessively long, strong uterine contractions sometimes resulting in fetal heart rate slowing.
Unless your practitioner advises it and is monitoring your progress closely, nipple stimulation is not recommended as a means for starting labour.
5. Take castor oil
Castor oil can be used to begin labour, but you should proceed with caution because this technique has side effects and possible complications.
Castor oil, which is primarily a strong laxative causes bowel spasms which may in the process cause contractions. It is possible that this technique does nothing more than what it’s meant to do- stimulate the bowel of both you and baby.