©Pregnancy bliss 2008
Methods of Self- Labor Induction: (continued from previous page)
• Castor Oil: Ingesting this is claimed to stimulate the uterus lead to labor onset. Whilst this claim has been around for decades, there is actually no evidence that it works. Moreover, it can cause nausea, vomiting or even diarrhoea, not an attractive prospect for one heavily pregnant at the end of her tether.
• Reflexology: This suffers from the same weakness as acupuncture. Put simply, evidence of effectiveness in induction of labor is lacking.
• Zero balancing: In the US and Australia, alternative therapists offer ‘Zero balancing’.
This is described as a “hands-
• Hot baths: They may be good at relieving stress but there is certainly no evidence that they can help trigger labor onset.
• Herbal preparations: Many herbal preparations have been claimed to accelerate labor onset. These include evening primrose oil, red raspberry leaves extract, black cohosh etc. None of these have evidence to back up the claims.
There is also the added concern that potential risks, dosage and drug interaction properties for many herbal preparations are not known. Black cohosh in particular is a case in point. This herbal product, more popularly used as an alternative to HRT for menopausal symptoms has been shown, in rare cases, to cause serious liver complications.
All in all, whilst the concept of self labor induction may be attractive, reasonable and in the right conditions, harmless, there is no real proven effective method out there today that a woman can employ with confidence. It also remains true that even with the proven pharmacological induction methods that doctors use, if the cervix is assessed to be unfavourable, the risk of failure may be very high indeed.
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