How To Induce Labor When Pregnant – 8 Useful Tips

As you reach the final few days of pregnancy, you would certainly be ready for the special day. However, there is no doubt that the special day is more of an educated guess rather than anything else. There are many situations where the mother delivers a perfectly healthy baby, and this could happen two weeks before the delivery date specified by the doctors.

On the other hand, there could be few mothers who could face difficulty in getting labor pain, and therefore they may have to use some other natural ways and means by which labor can be induced.

According to many research studies, it has been proven that almost 50% of women use some natural ways to induce labor during pregnancy. Let us try and have a look at a few such natural ways which have been proven and perhaps they might also have stood the test of time.

1. Exercise

Exercise can be one of the simplest, safest and proven ways by which labor can be induced. It could be anything from a relaxed climb up the steps or walking as much as possible. Climbing up the step could be a great way forward because it could help the baby to descend and move further down the birth canal. It could also help quite a bit in dilating the cervix using simple pressure.

Even if it does not work, you have no reasons to worry. It could help a lot in relieving stress and help your body to remain strong for the labor period that lies ahead of you and that too in the none-too-distant future.

2. Stimulation of The Nipples

There are a number of studies to prove that stimulation of nipples can lead to contraction of the uterus. It also perhaps could induce labor naturally. In fact, there studies to prove that breastfeeding the baby immediately after delivery is what helps the uterus to get back to shape.

In other words, when a newborn baby suckles the mother, it provides stimulation of the nipples which leads to the contraction of the uterus and helps to get it back to normal shape. Irrespective of how do you feel before labor trying this out could be useful in more ways than one.

3. Membrane Stripping

Stripping the membranes is also considered to be an effective method to induce labor naturally. It is usually done in the doctor’s place, but the advantage is that no medications are used. The doctor uses a gloved finger and helps separate the amniotic sac and moves it away from the uterine wall.

This action is supposed to be helpful in releasing more of those prostaglandins. It could also lead to spotting and cramps, but it could help in producing labor naturally.

However, when going through this process if you experience more than normal bleeding then you must immediately contact your doctor.

4. Acupuncture

Acupuncture is known to help in releasing oxytocin in the body. It has been tried in over 400 women as a research effort, and the results are quite encouraging. While it may not have been able to immediately result in labor, it helped the pregnant mothers from staying away from medications that are often used for inducement of labor. Hence it is a safe and probably result driven method of helping in inducing labor.

5. Pumping

There is something referred to as pumping to induce labor, and it is being used quite extensively as a natural method to ensure natural delivery without the use of medication for bringing in labor pains. It is done with the help of a breast pump.

Though it might look weird and perhaps even insane, it has been done quite effectively and has provided good results. It could lead the breast co-contract and is almost the same as stimulating the breasts about which we have talked about previously.

However, it has to be done properly, and you must take the go ahead from your doctor before going ahead. You must use the device to pump each breast giving 15-minute intervals. It should be repeated.

The goal is not to go in for milk production. The main objective is to ensure that the vaginal walls get contracted. If you are able to do it successfully it will not be long before the baby is able to come out.

6. Eat Spicy Foods

Though not exactly backed by facts, there are many who believe that eating spicy foods could help in the process of getting into labor. It is believed that eating of spicy foods lead to the release of prostaglandins and it happens almost throughout the entire digestive process. These hormones could play a significant role in helping contractions in the uterus. If nothing it certainly will help you to enjoy a tasty and hot food.

But please be sure that you do not suffer from gastritis and other problems because the same could be aggravated when you use such spicy foods.

7. Taking A Bumpy Ride

Though it might sound a bit primitive and crude, there is no doubt that a bumpy and rough ride could actually help in inducing labor. There are no scientific studies and data to back this and it has spread around by word of mouth. But the problem is that there isn’t too much of evidence that it actually works on the ground.

On the other hand, it might create problems and therefore is best avoided unless a bumpy ride to the nursing home or hospital becomes unavoidable.

8. Red Raspberry Leaf Tea

There are many midwives who recommend pregnant mothers to drink red raspberry leaf tea. However, before doing so it would be advisable to take the help of doctors and find out regarding the safety of the same. It is popular folklore that has been around for many centuries. But it has not been backed by scientific evidence though there are many who believe that it actually works on the ground.

Conclusion

Hence at the end of the day if you look around you will certainly be able to come across dozens of such methods which could help get labor pain normally especially during the advance stages of pregnancy.

In most cases, it does happen naturally and going through the normal chores, being stress free and eating nutritious and healthy food apart from doing some regular exercise should be good enough for smooth delivery.