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Home Page > Parenting > When your baby just doesn't want to be born!

When your baby just doesn't want to be born!

new_baby.jpgBy Sarah Cruickshank

You’ve packed your bags at 34 weeks and have been on pins ever since, getting excited at every twinge, maybe even seeing a “show”, indicating that labour shouldn’t be far away.

Five weeks later at 39 weeks, you’re still waiting despite being told that all is well and you know that next week you must present yourself at the hospital for your labour to be induced, but is there anything you can do yourself to try and speed the process along?

There are several popular “old wives tale” ways you can try and help the process of labour along, there is however, no guarantee that any of these ideas will work:

* Sex – semen contains prostaglandin, a hormone that helps start labour.  Once your partner has climaxed, lie with your hips elevated to help the semen stay on your cervix.  Female orgasm can open the cervix by two centimetres, which is a good start. 

* If full sex doesn’t appeal, nipple stimulation by gently rubbing, rolling or sucking them causes women to release oxytocin, a contraction-causing hormone.

* Drinking raspberry leaf tea can help tone your uterus and eating fruits like pineapple and mango might help as they contain an enzyme that can cause mild contractions.
 
* Drinking champagne might relax you and stop you obsessing about when your baby will be born, but watching a good film, getting lost in a book, or doing some meditation should work just as well.

* Many women swear by eating a curry or some equally spicy food as stimulating the digestive system may also stimulate contractions.  You may however just be really sick, so beware!

* Try exercise.  Pedalling an exercise bike, going for a walk or swinging on a swing in the park could help, as being upright puts pressure on your cervix, which could be enough to start you off.

* If none of the above work and you find yourself going into hospital, you could find your practitioner trying one (or all), of the following to get your labour started.

* Sweeping the membranes – literally a sweep of the finger to separate the amniotic sac from the uterus.  This causes a natural release of hormones.

* Prostaglandin gel is a synthetic form of the hormone in semen, it will be inserted to sit on your cervix and hopefully set you off.

* If your cervix is a couple of centimetres dilated (and when they say fingers, they MEAN fingers!), a practitioner may break your waters using a plastic hooked instrument that looks like a giant crochet hook.

* Once your waters have broken you will know that your baby is at most 24 hours away.  Hopefully, if you’ve had to go through any – or all – of the above, your delivery will go smoothly and you can start getting to know the latest addition to your family.


 
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