Amy's Abode

This will be a longer post because I tried everything possible to attempt inducing labour naturally aside from purposefully making myself sick (please don't do this). This was my first baby and statistically, that means the baby will likely be overdue. I didn't mind going slightly overdue, but I wanted to avoid being forced into an induction as in Canada (at least Ontario) they will not allow you to reach 42 weeks. I had my induction scheduled for 41 weeks and 3 days as that was the latest possible where my primary midwife would be available. Because of this, I want to share everything I tried to induce labour and to make labour easier, and what I believe actually ended up putting me into labour!

Raspberry leaf tea doesn't actually put you into labour, but there are many claims and even research that suggest it may make labour quicker and easier. This sounded great to me so at my 32-week appointment with my midwife she recommended I start drinking it. I purchased a large pack from Amazon and calculated how often I could drink the tea without running out before my due date. This ended up being one tea every other day for a few weeks before switching to every day. You can, of course, buy multiple packs, but I didn't want to spend too much money on this one thing when there were other labour-related purchases I wanted to make.

Evening primrose oil was a recommendation my midwife provided that I hadn't heard about previously. This doesn't necessarily put you into labour, but it is proven to help soften the cervix, which is a requirement for labour. So in a sense, it assists with labour, but isn't the thing that will put you into it if that makes any sense! At 32 weeks I started taking it orally every day. 

At 36 weeks I started inserting one evening primrose oil pill into my cervix each night before bed. Two recommendations: Poke a hole (or two) in the pill before inserting it to ensure it dissolves correctly and wear a pantyliner. Some of the oil will leak and you might freak out thinking your water broke. It did not. I promise the amount the oil leaks is much too small to be that. Also, make sure to smell the oil to get acquainted as it does smell sweet and the last thing you need to do is wonder if it's oil or amniotic fluid. 

I was nervous and excited about starting my consumption of six dates each day. This is something you've probably already heard of it you're reading this post as it's one of the most popular ways to help with the labour process. Dates have been studied and show a strong correlation with spontaneous (not induction) labour. 96% to be exact. 

The last thing I started doing at 36 weeks was sitting in front of my diffuser for at least 15 minutes every day. Specifically, I used Clary Sage. I normally don't believe in these things and my husband refers to them as "snake oils," but my midwife gave me the go-ahead, saying it wouldn't be harmful even though she hadn't heard about this method before. Since so many women and even labour and delivery nurses who led birthing classes claimed this works, I thought why not? It smelled nice so at the very least it was still pleasant. I ordered one bottle of 

Week 37 is where all of the other induction methods were greenlighted since this is the week that is considered "full-term." This was also my first week of pre-maternity leave vacation so I went wild with everything I'd already been doing and everything new on the list.

Colostrum harvesting was the most important thing that I did on this list because I'm one of the lucky few who actually had colostrum prior to giving birth for my first baby. I'm not sure of the actual numbers, but it seems like the majority of women do not have colostrum prior to their first baby so this isn't an option. I didn't have much at first, but my midwife showed me a technique that none of the classes I'd attended or YouTube videos mentioned. Basically treat it like you're milking a cow, except you're the cow. For this, I used 1mL syringes to start, and then 3mL syringes once I started producing more. I filled up over 100 syringes in total, which came in handy and I still have a few left for whenever Baby Girl has any inkling of a cold.

Curb walking is another popular method to induce labour. If you haven't already heard of it, it's where you walk with one foot on the street and one foot on the sidewalk, aggressively waddling back and forth. It looked ridiculous and I saw a few fellow mothers smirking at me, clearly knowing exactly what I was doing. I went on walks every single day since I was off work. It's also exercise so I guess you can't go wrong with this.

Sex is another well-known method to induce labour. We didn't go crazy with his because I had a fully cooked baby in my belly and I wasn't exactly as agile as the non-pregnant me was, but we did make an effort to increase the frequency

Bouncing on an exercise ball was also a twice-a-day occurrence during this time for me. I bounced, but mainly focused on doing figure 8's at the recommendation of my midwife. I definitely felt like things were happening with this, but any contractions I had never lasted. It did help a lot with creating space in my pelvis so I recommend this if you're very uncomfortable in general! I mention the ball in my Top 10 Pregnancy Favourites post and highly recommend it!

Finally, the number one method to induce labour. Stretch and Sweeps. I was so excited about this as it worked amazingly for one friend who opted to have this done (going into labour two days later) and another friend who had a second one and then soon went into labour. 38 weeks is the first week my midwife clinic would do this (and from my understanding, any OBs in Ontario will do this) so I went to my appointment looking forward to having this done, but left very disappointed. My cervix, while very soft thanks to everything else I'd done, was fully closed. In order for a stretch and sweep to be performed, your cervix has to be at least one to two centimetres dilated. Unfortunately despite all of my efforts, this hadn't happened so we went over the usual blood pressure checks and scheduled me for my 39-week appointment to try again. 

Everything I was already doing from my 38-week list continued in full force. One thing that I started doing differently was using my portable breast pumps to harvest colostrum to more aggressively stimulate my nipples, which is a very common induction method. Unfortunately, this didn't work well for collecting colostrum since I had very little compared to non-first-time moms, but it did get some out. I only did this once a day since it was very uncomfortable having never used breast pumps before and never having breastfed before.

Another failed Stretch and Sweep! I had no luck this week even though I continued trying everything else. I go over more details in my Third Trimester Overview post if you'd like to read it! While it didn't work out for me this time, I do believe that I'll be dilated in advance for my next baby since that's way more common and will absolutely be opting in for stretch and sweeps as early as I'm allowed.

I was very defeated by the time I reached my due date and was convinced I would have to be induced the following week. I continued on with everything on my list but slowed down a bit after realizing that stress doesn't help you go into labour. This is where I started taking more naps and trying to distract myself as much as possible. 

Two days after my due date I was feeling very desperate and started looking up YouTube videos about going into labour. I found one video that includes a set of exercises that apparently had a high success rate. Most of them were stretches, but the second video I  followed involved a "forward-leaning inversion" which is essentially being flipped upside down off of the couch. This isn't easy when you're past your due date, but I did it anyway because I had nothing to lose. I'll go over this in more detail in my next post, but spoiler alert: I went into labour a few hours later. I'm convinced it was the inversion that did it so I'll include the video here (5:24 timestamp):