I'm 40w3d and waiting for things to get started. Any experiences with inducing labor through acupuncture treatment?
-
My husband applied acupressure to spleen 6 pressure point and a few hours later labor started! warning: It does not feel good.
I was 40+2 when we did it, and our doula told us not to attempt it before 40. Who knows if it actually works, but worth a shot!
-
I went twice in week 39.. daughter was born on her due date. Agreed it does not feel nice.
-
I went for two treatments--one just before my due date and one when I was a few days overdue. I don't think it really did anything but it was super relaxing. I did acupuncture in my first tri and leading up to conception for fertility support so I'm a big fan.
-
My Acupunturist couldn't do any points that would induce. Her insurance company said it was too much liability and told her they would drop her if she did. So she only did things to help me sleep, help my nausea and help with stress.
-
I tried acupuncture for the first time when I was 40w3d or 4d and it did nothing! Baby came at 41w0d and it was via emergency C.
-
Not quite the same thing, but I ended up going to my acupuncturist for her induction protocol the morning of my hospital induction at 38 weeks and I am convinced it made everything go quickly and smoothly considering I was not showing any signs of labor prior. If nothing else it was relaxing and stress relieving as always!
-
At 40w2days my mom did acupuncture on me. I went into labor 4 hours later!
-
this is *such* a dumb old wives tale, but couldn't hurt: I had heard that eating eggplant parm induces labor. I was at a restaurant the night of 40+1 and saw it on the menu, ordered, ate most of it, went into labor the next morning at 7am. easier and tastier than anything else I've heard of
-
yep! an hour later i was in labor!
-
Thanks for all of the responses, ladies! It's interesting what works or doesn't!
I had my treatment this afternoon, but I can't say it worked yet. (I have been going weekly since 36-39w as well as the entire 1st tri and even earlier during IVF, but this was pretty much the first treatment to get labor started!) It wasn't painful, but it was a 2-hour appointment (!!) and included a few breaks for me to go outside and walk fast for 20 minutes....and she gua sha-ed (rubbed excruciatingly hard) my sacral, neck and shoulder muscles. Like cupping, but no perfect circles. I look totally thrashed in those areas now. And there were two rounds of needles! I'm supposed to go in tomorrow morning if nothing has happened yet.
@Run2shore: I'll have to look that one up. I know she did that one, but said it didn't have to be super intense/deep.
@Banana330: Talk about perfect results! Wow!
@Mrs. Pajamas: Me, too! I think there is something to be said for the magic of relaxation. Does a body good for many things! I also like (and liked in the fertility treatments) knowing I was doing all I could...
@bluestriped bee: Interesting about liability! Good thing acupuncture has many other benefits in pregnancy. It helped me a lot with 1st tri anxiety, that's for sure.
@sunny: Interesting!
@GreenThumb: That makes sense! I can definitely understand how that helped at least on stress levels! This makes me think that I should send DH to acupuncture so he can relax around the baby not arriving "on time."
@chopsuey: Wow, fast results! You, too, @madger: That's very interesting!
@LCTBQE: Far easier and tastier! I'll put that on the menu. I've been told greasy and oily foods so I'm laying on the butter and EVOO... oh and ice cream counts, right?
-
Put one ounce of castor oil in 4 ounces of ice cold OJ, shake really hard and drink quickly. I did this around 4 or 5, repeated every two hours until I went to bed at 10. I woke up at 2 in labor. The gentle dosage meant no intense diarrhea or cramping. Just one or two trips to the bathroom.
-
@MrsSRS: I have heard of this, but not the "gentle dosing"! I have mostly heard the bad stories of ladies going overboard and ingesting too much, too fast. I will put this on the back-up plan if I get to my Thursday OB appt...and he talks about scheduling an induction.
-
@Amorini: totally counts
hope it happens in the next day or two! I was SO impatient.
-
Eating tacos and bouncing on a yoga ball did the trick for me.
-
@Amorini: My husband's cousin does acupuncture for a living. When she was pregnant she was horrified to find out it did nothing for her pregnancy symptoms or labor induction.
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
15 comments