Home remedies and tips for labour

There are a lot of excellent, informative pregnancy and birthing websites, books and experts out there.  I am one of those people who believe being well informed is being well prepared and right from my first pregnancy, I read, watched and discussed everything I possibly could about pregnancy and child birth.  I had several people tell me I was crazy and I shouldn't watch things like 'One Born Every Minute' or read things like 'Real life birth stories'.  They thought it would worry or scare me un-necessarily and perhaps give me a false impression of what preg and labour would really be like.  In my case though, I couldn't disagree more.  Yes, some people may find reading or watching other peoples stories scary or off putting but I loved it.  I read about some of the best and the worst experiences out there and so I went into the last few days leading up to both my births knowing full well that it could be a really fantastic experience or anything but, but at least I knew the wide range of possibilities and felt ready to accept what will be, will be!

The hardest thing for me to accept or cope with is the lack of control.  I like to plan and organise things, sometimes bordering a little on the too obsessive side of organisation!  The thing with childbirth is the total lack of control you have in regards to there is NOTHING you can do to control when you will go into labour, how long it will last, or how easy or difficult it will be.  I HATE this lack of control.  I was more scared about going overdue with my babies than I was about how painful or long the birth may be (my impatience rearing it's ugly head yet again).  I wanted, scrap that-desperately needed to know when it would happen!  Even this third time around, it is driving me crazy.  Small decisions become huge dilemmas, like on Tuesday night, I had barely any sleep, up all night with intense Braxton Hicks contractions, so I was extremely tired all day yesterday but I couldn't make a decision about whether to have a nap or not based on not knowing when I would go into labour.  My reasoning was if I nap this afternoon I might be up all night again tonight which will drive me nuts so I should just stick it out and go to bed early and get a better nights rest.  However, the flip side is, I could go into labour tonight say at 10pm, so I should nap this afternoon just in case as it might be all that gets me through childbirth should it kick off tonight!  In the end I went against all the advice of get rest anytime you can and stuck it out all day without a nap, opting rather to go to bed early which worked out fine.

So the lack of control, coupled with the uncomfortable factor naturally leads almost all mothers to turn to natural remedies, advice, tips and mythical stories of how to kick start labour.  Also having a list of pre-baby must dos for the last week fews of pregnancy at the very least will help distract you or give you a sense of some control.  Being only 1 week out from my due date, I have long since started to implement a few of my favourites:

• Raspberry leaf tea - I have taken this with all of my pregnancies, regular cups of this are believed to help prepare your body for labour by stimulating your uterus. (1x cup per day from 32 weeks preg & build up to a max of 4x cups daily).
• 1000mcg of Vitamin C daily - I have been very strict this time taking 1 tablet every day since 30 weeks to help reduce the possibility of afterpains.  The afterpains after my 2nd child was born were toe curling, horrible pains every time I feed for the first week or so and I was told they get worse with each birth.  I do not want to experience them again so am hitting the vitamin c hard!
• Daily brisk walks - walking helps heaps, keeps you busy, tires you out so you sleep better, builds your muscles/fitness etc ready for birth, helps get baby down into position and engaged and with both of my births, I went for a really good walk when contractions were just starting and it absolutely helped to make the contractions stronger and more regular, speeding up the first stage of labour for sure.
• Warm baths - this helps me for 2 main reasons, firstly its one of the only things I can do to stop the Braxton Hicks and therefore be able to tell if they are real of false contractions. Secondly, it relaxes me and the amazing sensation of weightlessness is worth the total blow out of hot water I waste daily!
• Nookie -  I won't go into detail here as far to many of my friends, family and colleagues read this blog, however I will say the benefits and reasons for this helping to kick start labour seem pretty obvious to me and I can think of worse things to try!

.... on that note, one thing I haven't tried before but am going to next week is to have a stretch and sweep.  It was meant to happen today actually at my 39 week midwives appointment however we have a pretty nasty snow prediction forecasted for the next few days, so we didn't want to risk it working and putting me into labour sometime in the next 24-48 hours when I could potentially be snowed in.  And finally one thing I absolutely wouldn't try is castor oil to induce labour.  It sounds disgusting and potentially risky, so not worth it in my mind!

So ladies - any other safe home remedies you swear by or think are worth trying?  Love to hear your advice, old wives tales or experiences that helped you prepare during the last few days of pregnancy!