I know this is something that becomes a bit of an old-wives-tale topic, but what things have your doctors actually said WILL work? I've heard all the typical things--walking, sex, more walking, salsa, cold water, hot water, hot showers, cold showers. But, what things have your doctors actually recommended?

My sister-in-laws doctor actually recommended sex. Of course by then she was separate from her fiance so that wasn't an option, but he did tell her it was worth a try if she didn't want to be induced.

The only thing I have ever been told will work is walking. I had a van and everytime I climbed in and out it gave me contractions. Maybe doing errands might help.

I tried walking, I did a lot of walking during my finals weeks. I had gone to stay with my mom for the birth so I had some time on my hand, I walked twice per day, walking a few blocks at a time. It did not work for me.

There isn't any one thing that will work for every woman. I was late with my first child. I started contractions on Wednesday but didn't have her until the middle of the night Friday (technically Saturday early morning). I even did jumping jacks in sets of ten to try to get things moving but nothing worked. I think most of the time the baby will come when it's ready and there really isn't too much we can do to speed it up.

My midwife (when I was leaking and so on a limited time to get labour started) had me walking, and taking evening primrose oil internally. She had me using a breast pump, for the nipple stimulation, and eventually had me taking castor oil.

When I went to the hospital because the contractions still were not consistent and it looked like I would need pitocin, they found that the fluid was not amniotic. No idea what it was as I had no signs of infection, but even they saw a trickle.

Oh yes, There is a definite way to start labor for sure and that is with pitocin.They used that on me 3 times.They say labor isn't progressing fast enough and pop in the pitocin almost right away.
My water had a slow leak in it and would leak out every time I sat and stood up again.I told them it was my water but they didn't beleive it and ran a test on it to see .They thought it was urine. It really was my water though.:cool:

I tried everything short of castor oil, cohosh, and pitocin with my first, who was late. None of those things will start a labor that is not ready to start. Castor oil, cohosh, and pitocin all carry significant risk and I wouldn't do them without close supervision.

There are pros and cons of all of the jump start methods, and certainly they should not be used to start a labour prematurely. That always worried me-seeing women at 36 or 37 weeks starting to discuss ways to bring on labour already.

But for a case where your waters may be leaking and so the choice is castor oil or antibiotics to prevent potential infection, I would go for the castor oil every time.

When I was given potocin ,I was 39 weeks or more. I find it strange though that the last 3 pregnancies were all carried out with that drug.They said it is because labor was not progressing fast enough. I was only settled in when they started it in my iv,Almost like it was expected.Did not even wait an hr or so to see how things went.I think they rely to heavily on that drug.I don't know if it has any effects on the baby.

I have heard of the castor oil before, but how exactly does that work, wouldn't it not be safe to ingest?