To Induce or Not To Induce? Our Readers Write!

Name: Lola • Due Date: 07/15/2006

Baby is 2/5th engaged but I'm not having pains or twinges, nothing. Today I am 38+3 and I know this week will go slow. I just want to go into labour. I have an appointment 2 days b4 my baby is due at the hospital, if I haven't had her by 8 days time they'll give me an induction date. Why can't I just meet her NOW!!!!

Name: Becky • Due Date: 08/03/2006

I am 35 weeks pregnant and have had nothing but problems this is my third and i always thought i was further gone , but i got advised with my second that if you eat or drink something that would normally affect your stomach ie Curry , orange juice ect then this can help bring on labour and it did work for me i went in labour that night after drinking orange juice. This time ive just had enough.

Name: Nikki • Due Date: 07/13/2006

I have induced my labor with my last 3 pregnancies with Castor Oil and it has worked will all three. But now I am 37 weeks pregnant with twins.(whom are suppose to come early anyways.) and I have tried everything but nothing seems to work with this one. Any suggestions?

Name: T • Due Date: 07/07/2006

I really want to induce my pregnancy. I am 35 weeks and 6 days. I am really uncomfortable, everything hurts, when I stand, walk, sit. I am emotionally drained. Also my feet are starting to swell up. I am so tired of being pregnant, I really want her to come out. Not sure if I can induce this early?

Name: lashun • Due Date: 06/24/2006

tried castor oil with my second child it did work, but the contractions were hardly bareable. When my water broke there was blood because I was dilating so quickly. I tried again with my third child did not do much but make me sick not even diarrhea. I have taken two doses since yesterday i am having mild contractions and just had my first BM was loose. Sorry TMI but no diarrhea, I am still cramping will see what happens as day progresses. I am 3-4cm dilated 50 percent effaced thought it would be quick.

Name: Camille Lindo • Due Date: 11/28/2005

I was anxious for my fourth baby to be born, as due to a career move my husband and our older children were in another country, and I was a lady-in-waiting in my parents' home with our 3-year-old son. I was hoping for an early delivery, so I could reunite with my family. Just like the previous pregnancy, I had contractions in my sleep, but no reliable pattern emerged. When the due date passed, I started looking up natural induction aids. I ate fresh pineapple daily, drank cumin tea and thyme tea (with my midwife's okay), and took long relaxing baths every night, and rubbed my belly with palma rosa oil (diluted with a carrier oil). I didn't want to fall out of protocol with my midwife, either (two wks after due date I would have to go to an OB). I eventually begged DH to make a special trip to spend time with me, as "what makes baby go in helps baby to come out." After three days and still no baby, I was at my wit's end. I made an appointment to see an accupuncturist, who said sometimes just making an appointment to see her worked to begin labour. A girlfriend who is a midwife-in-training suggested I write the baby a letter. Huh? She told me to write a letter, explaining that baby's snug home would be too small soon, and name all the people who were waiting to meet him/her. I resisted, saying that I talk to the baby all the time and say all those things, but she insisted that "the energy" would be different if I wrote the letter. So, I wrote the letter Tuesday afternoon, read it aloud to myself, to baby, to my girlfriends, and my new son was born on Wednesday morning, about 14 hours later. NVD, with the assistance of wonderful midwives, just like the other children. He was"only" 9 days past his due date.