Expectant mothers hear all sorts of advice on how to induce labour, once they have gone past their due date.
Going for a walk, a hot bath, eating curry, castor oil, drinking raspberry leaf tea, or indulging in the kind of activity which got the expectant parents into the mess led to the pregnancy in the first place, are all said to be ways of bringing on labour.
Are they old wives’ tales or do they really work?
I can’t say for sure about all of the methods listed but I must confess – I know from experience that castor oil brings on labour!
Does Castor Oil Bring On Labour? My Story
Overdue with our second child, I’d had enough. My mother-in-law swore that castor oil would bring on labour, so I bravely gulped down a dose at 11 am (it tasted disgusting, even though I mixed it with honey!) and waited to see what would happen.
I spent the next couple of hours on the toilet, it certainly had a violent effect! At 2pm, shaky and exhausted, and with a sore bottom (ever heard that song about the burning ring of fire?!), I fell onto our bed and cried myself to sleep (Master 2 was visiting his grandmother). All that agony and still no sign of labour!
At 3.30 pm I woke to a familiar feeling – like a period cramp. Was that a contraction?!
I dozed off again, only to be woken by another cramp about 15 minutes later. Still I lay in bed, too drowsy and comfortable to be bothered moving.
By 4pm I’d had 2 more contractions so phoned my husband’s workplace, only to learn that he was in a meeting. I told his office not to interrupt him – I thought I still had a loooong way to go, after all my first labour had lasted over 18 hours!
Fortunately the message was passed straight on to my husband (as they knew I was overdue) and he arrived home within 15 minutes to find me unpacking the dishwasher, and fretting because I hadn’t hung out a load of washing. For some funny reason (nesting instinct perhaps?!), I really wanted to finish both of these chores even though I had to stop every couple of minutes for contractions!
I was feeling uncomfortable but not in pain, and I found that pelvic rocking helped a lot. My husband rang the hospital and upon hearing of the frequency of my contractions – by then every minute or two – they advised us to come straight in. I wasn’t convinced, but the midwife insisted.
Still thinking we had plenty of time, we stopped at my mother-in-law’s house to drop off an overnight bag for out little boy. M-I-L took one look at me and told the hubster to hurry! We laughed to ourselves as we drove off, thinking that she was being an over-anxious grandparent.
Just after 6pm we were ushered into the birthing suite. I begged for an epidural; I’d had one with my first child and was quite frightened at the prospect of labour without it. However the midwife explained it was too late – I was already 9cm dilated!
I made do with gas instead, which did take the edge off but also left me feeling pretty spaced out!
The midwife was filling in some paperwork when all of a sudden I had an overwhelming urge to push – something I’d never experienced, due to the epidural last time. Another nurse poked her head in and asked if she could help, my midwife said, “Yes, you can put your gloves on and get ready to catch!”
Only a few short pushes later and our baby came into the world, red faced and crying. Although I was feeling very sick and shaky (a side effect of the fast labour), when the baby was placed on my stomach I reached over to lift up the cord, because I still didn’t know if it was a boy or girl!
I was delighted to find we had a baby girl, just as I had suspected. She was born at 6.48pm, barely 45 minutes after we’d arrived at the hospital.
The whole labour had taken just over 3 hours from start to finish!
Has anybody else had the experience of taking castor oil to bring on labour – and did it work as quickly as it did for me?!