How does pineapple help bring on labour

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A pilot study. Biomed research international Acupuncture or acupressure for induction of labour. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 10 10 , CD Oxytocin levels in low-risk primiparas following breast stimulation for spontaneous onset of labor: a quasi-experimental study. If yours is one, try giving nature a helping hand and bringing on labour. That could have a knock-on effect on the muscles of the uterus to start contracting.

Try it for five minutes then take a break for The idea is that having an orgasm can trigger your brain to release oxytocin, the hormone that starts and regulates contractions.

Semen contains prostaglandins, which may encourage the cervix to soften and dilate. Kafaei Atrian, M. The association of sexual intercourse during pregnancy with labor onset.

Iran Red Crescent Med J. Free full text! Kavanagh, J. Sexual intercourse for cervical ripening and induction of labour. Breast stimulation for cervical ripening and induction of labour. Omar, N. Coitus to expedite the onset of labor: A randomized trial.

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Obstet Gynecol, 1 , Effect of coital activity on onset of labor in women scheduled for labor induction: a randomized controlled trial. Obstet Gynecol, 4 , Hi, everyone. Join me each week as we work together to get evidence based information into the hands of families and professionals around the world. As a reminder, this information is not medical advice. See EBBirth.

Today, we are continuing our series on the evidence on different natural labor induction methods. If you go to our archives at EvidenceBasedBirth. Eating pineapple is a popular suggestion I see on social media when people are looking for ways to get labor going naturally. Pineapple, or ananas comosus fruit, ripe or unripe, has been used as a traditional medicine to induce labor and terminate pregnancies in many part of the world.

For example, traditional healers in Fiji prescribe unripe pineapple for the purpose of terminating early pregnancy. The use of unripe fruit juice, or aqueous, or watery extract of pineapple to induce abortion is also practiced in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Trinidad. In India, a hot aqueous extract from ripe pineapple is also used to terminate pregnancy. The enzyme bromelain is thought to be the active ingredient that contributes to cervical ripening, or the softening and thinning of the cervix that can help start labor.

Unfortunately, we do not have any clinical research studies on pineapple for natural labor induction. However, there are a few studies on rats and some Petri dish studies on isolated human uterine tissue. A study by Nwankudu demonstrated that pineapple juice from ripe fruit is capable of inducing strong uterine contractions in non-pregnant rat tissue in vitro.

So when they looked at rat tissue from the uterus in non-pregnant rats in a Petri dish, pineapple juice could induce contractions. A followup study in by the same researchers randomized pregnant rats to normal saline or salt water or pineapple juice by mouth for 24 hours, 36 hours, or 48 hours, and then studied different doses of pineapple juice on pregnant rat uterine tissue in vitro.

In the in vivo experiment with live rats, there were no abortions and all of the rats littered at full term. The authors think that this suggests that digestive enzymes could be causing the juice to lose its uterotonic properties when taken by mouth. In the in vitro or Petri dish experiment, all doses of pineapple juice significantly induced contractions in the isolated rat uterine tissue.

They think this could be due to the combined effects of bromelain and other components of the juice. They exposed the tissue to pineapple juice at different doses and to oxytocin, a hormone that can induce labor, and the contractions induced by pineapple juice were similar to those of oxytocin.

You may wonder how much pineapple you have to eat to induce labour. The answer is quite a few. This is because one pineapple will not contain sufficient amounts of bromelain enzyme.

In order to trigger labour, you may have to consume almost seven whole pineapples. However, you need to consult a doctor to decide on an amount safe for you and avoid overconsumption. Eating is recommended because the inner core of pineapple fruit has more enzymes and may be more potent in inducing labour than pineapple juice.

Pineapples may do the trick for you by inducing labour but eating pineapples in large amounts may lead to heartburns and may even cause diarrhoea. Pineapples have good amounts of natural sugar in them, and if you are suffering from gestational diabetes , then eating pineapples may increase your blood sugar levels during pregnancy. More amounts of sugar in your blood could cause complications in your pregnancy, and it could be harmful to your baby as well.

The amount of unripe pineapple that causes miscarriage is not known yet. Women might wonder about alternative ways to induce labour. Well, there are a few, but none of them has been proven. Soaking yourself in a warm water bath may or may not help in the initiation of going into labour. Warm water helps relax, and it could help induce labour.

Be careful with the water temperature, though; it should not be too hot as your baby might feel hot and uncomfortable.