Nurturing Life Hypnotherapy

I’m sure that you can all reel off the most common suggestions for getting labour to start when you’re either under threat of being induced, or (not so common with HypnoBirthing mums) just a bit fed up with being pregnant.

The well known ones are

• Spicy food (curry was never going to work with me since I lived on it for the entire pregnancy!)
• Driving the car over speed bumps or the bumpiest road possible
• Acupuncture
• Acupressure
• Reflexology
• Aromatherapy
• Raspberry leaf tea by the bucketful

and so on…Some may be successful, some not.

Methods to avoid… Raspberry leaf tea is actually a uterine toner, so it will get your uterus in shape for birth, but is unlikely to kickstart labour. There’s no harm in drinking it, but there’s no point in overdoing the quantities! Castor oil used to be recommended, but this is likely to create stomach cramping. While this can cause your surges to begin in earnest, they can be so strong that they cause distress to your baby, and that’s exactly what you don’t want at any stage.

There are ways to encourage labour along naturally, however, before resorting to a more managed solution.

For a start, make sure you’ve sorted out any little details that may be niggling at you (e.g. if you already have a child, have you sorted out childcare arrangements for when you’re in labour?).

You may also be having last minute jitters yourself about giving birth, so a fear release session may help – if you’ve attended a HypnoBirthing course, you and your birth companion will get a general purpose script that can help in this sort of situation.

Get yourself into as relaxed a state as you can, remember that the more you can relax, the more your muscles can get on with doing their job of thinning and opening.  Light touch massage can help too, with your birth companion adding some more stimulation by extending the massage to your nipples & earlobes! Use any visualisations you’ve practised, such as the opening flowerbud.

Don’t dismiss sex as an option – it’s what got you into this situation, and it can get you out of it. It may be the last thing on your mind at 40+ weeks pregnant, but semen contains prostaglandin which will thin your cervix. In fact, a synthetic version of prostaglandin is used to induce labour, so why not try the real thing first?

And finally, remember you can always ask your baby to cooperate, explaining to him/her why it would be good for them to put in an appearance sooner rather than later. Tell your baby how much you’re looking forward to meeting them, holding them, and what you’ve done to prepare for their arrival. You never know, they may just pay attention to you!

Have you found anything that successfully kickstarted labour for you?