Should you induce labor naturally

At the end of my first pregnancy, I developed a rash called PUPPP...and it was miserable. It began when I was almost 40 weeks. I can easily say it was the worst thing to ever physically happen to me. I felt like I was going insane with itchiness. I won't go into great detail since that isn't the purpose of this post but just know that if anyone was ready to have that baby it was me.

Days went on and no labor came. Days turned into a week and it just kept on going. My husband kept reminding me that the baby had to come out at some point, this couldn't last forever. But the farther I went from my due date the less I believed him.

So we were trying to induce labor naturally. We did everything I knew to do; spicy foods, lots of sex, evening primrose oil (not necessarily to induce), walking, hiking, bouncing. I asked my midwife about castor oil and decided against it. (Her reasoning is, if it has a laxative effect on you it could on baby as well which is no good!) But that baby would not come.

About 41 weeks and 5 days my midwife gave the green light and encouragement to try black and blue cohosh tinctures. By 42 weeks my baby was here and the PUPPP was finally over!

What I learned from that, was that babies usually just won't come no matter how much you coax them if they aren't ready.

But as I have read stories and even seen people I know try to induce naturally I am beginning to think it still isn't a good idea.

Doing things that you have been doing your whole pregnancy (at least should be) like walking, sex, hiking, eating good food which in my opinion should include spicy :), aren't really inducing labor. They could help but only in the sense that doing those things are good for your health and getting the baby in position as well as preparing you for labor.

They can be hard on your body if you aren't giving yourself rest but other than that they really shouldn't be the cause of you going into labor when your baby isn't ready.

More of what I am talking about it the more drastic "natural ways" to induce labor, like castor oil, stripping the membranes, trying to break your water, laxatives, really intense foods, extreme pumping etc. These things could actually affect you and your baby.

If you believe in having your baby naturally then you should also be willing to let it come on its own time. I told you my story at the beginning so you would know that I completely understand how miserable you are and how desperate you are to be our own person again. I get the aches and pains and even the extra ones, but it isn't worth giving up a natural birth or worse, the health of your baby for a couple of days or weeks early.

Scientists still aren't fully sure what causes labor to start, although they do know it has to do with when the baby is physically able to breathe on its own. (Except in special circumstances when the body senses a danger either to mom or baby and begins premature labor) We shame the medical community for inducing women too early and babies being born still immature because of it. Yet so many women who want natural birth try to do the same.

These methods may do nothing for you. But sometimes they do cause reactions like very strong contractions that you and your baby aren't ready for. You could stress the baby and cause it to release meconium. You could cause yourself to go into labor before your body is actually ready causing a very long and difficult labor. You could be sacrificing your ideal natural birth.

There are times when trying to induce naturally should be used. If labor needs to start either synthetically or "naturally" it is clearly better to attempt to start it naturally but otherwise, in my opinion, I think it is best to wait.

Maybe I will pick this back up...

I stumbled upon my old blog tonight and saw how many pageviews its gotten. Apparently people want to read more about EC and parenting :)

So maybe if I can find time in my busy life I will pick this back up.

A quick update since it is my bedtime...

Sammy is now 2 1/2!! So hard to believe! She is fully potty trained during the day and has been for over a year now. She does wet the bed at night but it started happening when her sister was born.

Which leads me to announcing that Samantha now has a little sister, Dakota who is currently 10 months old! As far as EC is going for Dakota...its good but not going as well as with Sammy for multiple reasons. We have had a few transitions during her younger months like moving. And I wasn't a diligent to potty her as a was with Sammy. My thoughts were that it wasn't necessarily quantity of catches with Sammy as it was quality but that isn't always true. I depended on diapers a lot more with D especially during the move which the whole process took about 2 months. We are working at it but now he cloth diapers have severe amonia build up from the well water so we have been using disposables for night and outings which really hinder us. But she is still on ly 10 months and she knows to go, just need her to cue to me :) I hopefully can post more on this later.

Another transition that hindered D's pottying was my first trimester for our 3rd baby! That's right I am now 14 weeks into my 3rd pregnancy :) Planning on another homebirth. We are in the process of moving yet again a couple of hours away to where my husband has been relocated for work. It is a crazy time right now but we are making the most of it.

This next babe I am planning on keeping it diaper free the vast majority of the time including out and about. Having depended on diapers so much with D it really makes me not want to this time especially after going back and reading how well we did with Sammy from such an early age.

So there is the quick update of it all. We shall see if I can find the time to come back later and add more!!

Dakota 10 months

Sammy being silly- 2 1/2 yrs