Membrane sweep!!

claireandella

Hi Nats, by the time you read this post the baby may be coming on it's own...

If not then you could try massaging a few drops of clary sage oil into your bump (or mixing it with a few drops of lavender in your bath).

My baby was born in May and went two weeks overdue. I was soooo fed up that I was willing to try anything and my midwife performed 3 sweeps over 7 days. I also bounced on a trampoline, ate curry, ate pineapple (but later found out that I wasn't supposed to eat it...I'll leave this to your imagination), I tried everything! I was getting particularly stressed because my lovely small maternity hospital would only take me if I went into labour naturally before 41 1/2 weeks (first births being higher risk etc) and the alternative was the much bigger conveyor-belt scruffy maternity unit in an impersonal hospital miles away from my family. A coupl of days after the 2nd sweep my midwife phoned and was amazed that I was still waiting, she was sure that labour would have started. At this point she called in another midwife, who was qualified in aromatherapy, and suggested the clary sage oil and a third sweep. It didn't smell too bad, in fact the worst part was waddling into town to buy it (about £6 in Holland and Barrett). It did start my contractions as predicted, but they stopped because I got very stressed out (thanks to the constant stream of visitors who came round to gawp at me!!, not content with phoning every hour for a fortnight to see if anything had happened yet). Anyhow, anything's worth a try by this stage (provided it won't hurt the baby) and I'm sure that the clary sage was part of the reason why my labour was only 3 hours long when I went in the following day...

Anastasia

This discussion takes me back to when I was student midwife more than 20 years ago and I was working with a soon to retire community midwife.

She gave the advice to one couple in a last ditch attempt to have the baby before induction date (she was having a home birth) to get some wine, candles etc and have 'one night of love'.

Lo and behold we witnessed a lovely home birth in the early hours! Have never forgotten it.