According to this site for doulas:
Since I am due May 1, and really want to have this baby as soon as possible on or after my due date, April 30 if I am feeling at all up to it, hubby is getting a treat. He really deserves one anyway.
Any partners brave enough to consider suggesting this to your very pregnant SO?
This was recommended to us as well by a few people. We tried both delivery orifices just to make sure. 
I think we got in at least 4 or 5 ‘applications’ in the week leading up to the due date. Whoo-hoo! Fun and functional. Baby was on time and labour was relatively short (overnight cramping every hour or so, delivery by noon).
-Tcat
With my first one, I definitely tried this. My husband didn’t mind a bit, of course, but I was still a week late. Ugh. And that last couple weeks, every day seems like an eternity, doesn’t it?
Finally one night I made him take me out for a long bumpy ride in his work truck over the worst roads in town. I winced with every jounce, but I had my first contraction four hours later. Thank god, I’d been having nightmares about elephants and their two year pregnancies. :eek:
Good luck lee!
We tried this, but it didn’t work. I needed to be induced with Pitocin anyway.
Robin
Lee, I just want to say thanks for the timely advice. I’ll be sure to show this to Mrs N!
Good luck for the big day! Let us know how it goes.
N.
We tried this, plus hot Chinese food, etc. I think all are equivalent hokum.
The only thing I’ve ever seen a scientific study on was also fun for hubby, but probably not so much for you. Basically, it required 3 hours a day of nipple stimulation. I can’t recall much more about it, but will look for the article, if you think you want to try it.
Might not be a bad idea to get your nipples pre-toughened, I guess… maybe starting breastfeeding would be slightly less painful.
BTW, I understand you’re not very comfortable, but you’re probably better off letting the baby come after the due date; later babies are bigger and sleep better. Though delivery will be more difficult, it will be hard in any event and over quickly, reltively.
Get yourself some Evening Primrose capsules. Evening Primrose is a prostaglandin precursor. Per our Certified Nurse Midwife, they are used as vaginal suppositories to help effacement.
(obviously check with your health care provider, I certainly am NOT one).
My best friend and her husband used the “baby-bringer” position about three weeks before her due date (she HAD to have some lovin’), and sure enough, her water broke 3-4 hours later.
Congratulations in advance! People born on May 1st are some of the most wonderfully talented and kind people in the world. We are also very stubborn and love to eat, sleep, and have sex. 
Good Gracious! Don’t do that without talking to a DOCTOR!!! (No NP, midwife, etc., please.)
That would be the height of irresponsibility. Why would you ever use an unregulated, untested, unprescribed drug ever, but especially in a pregnancy!???!
Your OB will tell you when or if the pregancy is getting long enough to be a concern. If it reaches that point, you can discuss which medications might be helpful.
I’m not looking to induce early, that is why I said I was treating hubby the evening before I am due, not today. Besides my LMP due date was April 21. If it were not for ultrasounds, my doctor might be wanting to induce me already. I want to avoid a pitocin induction, but if I go past my due date, that is my destiny. Since I have gestational diabetes, he doesn’t want me to do many days past due. I have had excellent blood sugar control as confirmed by a recent Hg A1c test, at least that is what I think he called it.
Besides I want to wait until May because Emeralds are prettier than Diamonds.
**
Our CNM was the primary health care provider for my wifes pregnancy (part of a group that includes OBs and CNMs).
**
Thanks for calling us, and our CNM irresponsible. :rolleyes:
In our case, I was scheduled for major knee surgery (long story)…and delivering by or arround the due date was important. If she hadn’t delivered by a set date, we were looking at scheduled induction.
Of course I did say to “check with your health care provider” in my previous post.
My apologies for appearing to insult you. You didn’t say in your previous post that you had actually used this product.
And, although I understand why people may prefer nurses or midwives to doctors, I don’t think they have enough medical background to be prescribing drugs. If not, they also should not be recommending these ‘supplements’.
You never know whether this supplement might turn into the next ephedra.
lee, just want to wish you and yours all the best for May 1st…we’ll want photos of the munchkin and the happy family!
(Is it still Lorien? Or have you changed your minds? Or did I just misremember that?)
My grandmother did the bumpy road thing, my mother got me to show up with Italian food and Cassata ice-cream…or so she says…
System crashed, lost my post. Dang.
Anyway…
RE: EPO, don’t take it internally. I was in the study that looked at its efficacy for non-post-dates and shortened duration of labor. The answer is it doesn’t do either. Okay, it does change the curve for duration of labor, making some labors shorter, and some longer, than the normal curve of durations. But you don’t know if you’ll be in the ‘shorter labor’ set or the ‘longer labor’ set. It also increases problems with descent, in that study (which was admittedly small). And it had zero impact on actual gestation period. That is, it didn’t make labor happen sooner.
Topical application is assumed to have fewer implications, but again, has not been studied. The assumption is that if you are not ripening due to a lack of precursors in your system, this will provide them. Personally, I’d still skip it, even though I doubt it has anything like the implications of oral ingestion (not systemic reaction, for example). However, given the implications of induction with a bad Bishop’s score (not ripe for induction), it may be determined to be worth any risks (since it has not been associated with a substantial pattern of negative outcomes to date).
As for what we did, we tried the whole wive’s tale routine to avoid a 42-week-2-day scheduled induction (no scheduled inductions on weekends, but biphysical profiles on weekends to ensure safety of later induction). Sex, spicy meal, glass of port (red wine, usually, but I prefer port), drive over a bumpy road (note to self, do not use someone’s Mercedes for this, as it removes the whole bumpiness thing), and a few hours of bellydancing. And yeah, I went into labor that night.
Was it the sex? The food? The drink? The ride? No idea. Most women go into labor before 42 weeks, anyway, and I was just over 41 and a half weeks. Doing nothing could easily have had the same effect.
Regarding the GD, let me add a note of experience (backed up by research): Ultrasound estimation of birth weight (within 10% of the actual) ranges from 30% to 75% accurate (mostly around the low 60%s across various studies), and appears to become less accurate the higher they estimate the weight. If they estimate that you have a BIG BABY (macrosomia, or a baby over 4500g), do not assume they are automatically right. Ultrasound estimation of macrosomia is not much better than flipping a coin.
(oh, and wasn’t ephedra tested by the FDA? That note could apply to ANY off-label use of any med, including those that have been tested for safety, and approved. Like, say, cytotek, which is often used by doctors for induction of labor, despite its record of increased odds of a uterine rupture, and statements from the manufacturer saying that it is not to be used for induction of labor.)
And just for fun, go in to Medscape or any other system that lists the Cochrane Medical Abstracts, and do a search on ‘Induction labor’ - you’ll find a lot of abstracts reviewing the data. Sex for induction is one of them (inconclusive, not enough studies). So is nipple stimulation (comparable to oxytocin-induction outcomes with an additional reduction in risk of postpartum hemorrhage, but not to be used in high risk pregnancies, and not studied enough to ensure safety). And so are a variety of other approaches, from baths to accupuncture to prostaglandin. Worth looking up, IMHO.
Beagledave, I’m wondering if one of my friends delivered for you guys. I have a couple in that line of work.
Sadly I was never able to go through any of them. Mostly because fathers objections.
If it is not a high risk pregnancy orgasms are a good thing. Minor uterine contractions.
Raspberry tea is also a good thing. Small doses since it’s a diaretic.
The taking of the semen orally is a new one on me. But I was aware of the effects on the cervix.
Greasy foods like fried chicken or pork chops have been known to be effective.
Lots of stories about waters breaking at KFC, Long John Silvers and Pizza Hut. I’m sure something like White Castle would have the same effect.
With my first one my doctor recommended Casterole mixed with orange juice. Yuck!
Four non-complicated over-term pregnancies.
I didn’t try any of these things until I was over due and ready to be rid of the beast within.
Sometimes I wish they would go back, the little lovely heathens.
Good luck to all our moms and dads to be.
I know I don’t post to the pregnancy threads much. My youngest of five is now five and my oldest is thirteen. Not posting to those threads helps me not go through the “oh, I want another one!”.
Oh, and one more thing…do not use nipple stimulation unless you plan on breast feeding.
No pain on earth is worse than having full jugs under pressure. And if you express you just make more and have to wean like you would if you were nursing.
On the other hand if you were to do that and not nurse you could call the hospitals and see if they need it.
Good luck with the little one Lee…
wow hedra… They used cytotek on me to start my induction (they inserted it vaginally and it was my first pregnancy… not sure if you mean orally or vaginally or if it matters in your above post.
I was induced early (high risk) and will be an early scheduled c section this time as they don’t want to induce since my first birth was a c section and there is such a risk of rupture.
Last time though we tried spicy foods and sex and whatever people recommended the weekend before my induction (we went in on a monday) and none of it worked for us.
Oh and with pitocin all my contractions came in couplets… I was very thankful for my epidural!
I absolutely agree.
Her name is Loren, not Lorien. Although I do like that the name is reminiscent of such a beautiful place.
I do plan to breastfeed.
We did the full gamut of induction ideas with P the Elder. Acupuncture every night for a week. Ouch. Finally I went into labour at 42 weeks on the night before the scheduled induction.
We used EPO to ripen the cervix with P the Younger. Still had a very low Bishop’s score when the induction with prostins began. That was at 38 weeks. He was mostly induced for social reasons as my midwife had a brain tumour and was scheduled for surgery 1 week before his due date, I was out of my mind with worry after all the pregnancy losses and my mother was over from Australia for the birth and I really wanted to deliver as early as possible in her visit so I had support. He was delivered about 36 hours after the prostins were inserted.
Sometimes you see the blue and black cohoshes recommended. Don’t use these without having an experienced hcp involved. They can be very dangerous.