Knowing how to go about inducing labor yourself is a good idea. After all, you never know what might happen as your due date creeps up on you – and it might actually turn out that you need help to go into labor after all.
While there are many natural methods of inducing labor out there – the fact is that quite a few have risks involved. Knowing those risks is essential to choosing how you plan to go about inducing labor.
For starters, one of the most popular methods of inducing labor is to eat various types of foods – and spicy food is often recommended. Unfortunately, if you don’t normally eat spicy food you run the risk of indigestion and could even end up with fairly severe diarrhea.
This will leave you dehydrated and weak – which is not a condition you want to be in when you do enter labor! And bear in mind that there are other foods that can do the same if you’re not used to eating them.
A good example of this is licorice, which is also often touted as helping to induce labor but can cause diarrhea, especially when consumed in large quantities as is often suggested.
Even Castor oil which was once the ‘bread and butter’ method of inducing labor yourself can result in the same issue. Frankly speaking though – the risks involving Castor oil are possibly far greater and there is a lot of debate as to whether or not Castor oil could lead to the baby passing Meconium.
If true, that is really a risk you do not want to take. Should a baby pass Meconium, they could inhale it into their lungs and that can be fatal or lead to other serious developmental problems. In short – it might be best to avoid Castor oil entirely.
Another debate that is also ongoing is whether or not certain herbs you might be thinking about using when inducing labor yourself are totally safe. These herbs are primarily blue and black cohosh.
In particular, black cohosh has been known to thin the blood – which can lead to problems involving blood loss during labor. To be honest, research about both these herbs is really inconclusive, but erring on the side of caution can’t hurt.
In all honesty, the question that you should ask yourself is: Why take any risk at all?
There are quite a few risk-free methods that you can use to go about inducing labor yourself, so there’s really no reason for you to pick something that has any risks to it whatsoever.
Light exercises (such as swimming or walking), meditation, nipple stimulation and even sex are all completely risk free. And if you doubt the effectiveness of those methods, what about acupressure instead?
Through pressure points located all over your body, acupressure has been known to be one of the most effective methods of inducing labor yourself. And the best part is there is zero risk involved. You can learn more about acupressure here.
Do yourself a favor: Now that you know exactly which methods of inducing labor yourself actually have risks attached to them, steer clear. In the long run, its not worth taking any risks when it involves yourself, or your baby.
