Herbs & Tonics In Pregnancy
I have a Spiced Pumpkin candle from Yankee Candle burning (birthday present from my mom & dad), my kitchen is actually utterly and completely clean, and I'm comtemplating brewing myself some tea. A perfect time for my rant, me thinks.
I need to qualify my statements first of all by stating that I'm deliberately leaving out things such as chemical induction (whether through prostogladin gel, off-label prescription of cytotec, and/or intravenous adminstration of Pitocin). Those are, obviously, at the extreme of the attitude I'm going to be talking about, but each could easily constitute its own rant. In fact, if you are interested in cytotec, you can read an article from Mothering magazine about it. Also, for more on induction in general, see Let the Baby Decide: The Case Against Inducing Labor.
There is a tendency, however, even among those that reject medical management of pregnancy, to rely on herbal preparations and other 'natural' methods to encourage labour. There are herbal teas that are taken merely as tonics - one end of the spectrum - to those who take herbal preparations such as 5W and insert EPO capsules into their vagina nightly from week 35 or 36, in addition to trying just about every other method of natural induction there is.
While I can understand this attitude in the face of threatened chemical induction - yes, I'd try sex, nipple stimulation, and castor oil before pitocin, too - it seems that some people have this attitude that our bodies must be helped in some way.
I do admit that I personally drink red raspberry leaf tea, and some pregnancy teas. I do for a variety of reasons. One, it's a way to get to more fluid in me, since I still resist drinking water in the quantities that I should. Two, there is nutritional benefit that I can gain out of many of these herbs. I am not someone who eats well. I eat well within the strictures of food I will tolerate, but that list is painfully small even when I am not dealing with pregnancy-induced food aversions. Specifically, I don't eat any green leafy vegetables. The benefits I can get, however small, out of some small amount of nettle, alfalfa, and red raspberry leaf are well worth it to me. Lastly, I see these teas as a tonic. When I am not pregnant, I will drink red raspberry leaf tea, especially around that time of the month.
However, I don't drink these teas to get an easier labour, nor a faster labour. I know about the uterine toning benefits of red raspberry leaf tea, but I'm not sure that I'm going to get any of that 'action' from a singular cup per day - especially since any time I see it mentioned, there is a notation to drink at least three eight-ounce cups daily, or more.
More specifically, however, than teas, I want to address herbal preparations such as 5W and the use, both vaginally and orally, of evening primrose oil (EPO). EPO is said to soften the cervix and prepare it for labour, and 5W is also designed to prepare the body for labour - if not bring labour on sooner than otherwise. I don't know, exactly, since at least 5W seems to be less popular than it was even four years ago, but that is what I recall hearing, previously.
A woman's body, except in very rare circumstances, will go into labour at the appropriate time for her body and her baby. It is known that the state of the cervix is not predictive of how soon a woman will go into labour, nor does it indicate anything specific about how long or how easy her labour will be, once it comes. Preparing the body for labour with these ritual uses of herbs seems, in some ways, little different than the ritual of weekly cervical checks performed by the obstetrican. Some would argue, of course, that at least 5W or EPO causes no harm, and a cervical check introduces foreign objects into the vagina. Well, perhaps. But using EPO vaginally also introduces a foreign object into the vagina, and with more frequency than a weekly cervical check. Also, we don't, in actuality, know the full consequences of being born too soon. If 5W and EPO cause a baby to be born 'merely' a day or two earlier than s/he would otherwise have been, chances are there are few consequences. But the simple fact is that we do not know, the same argument used against chemical induction by obstetricans!
Yes, there are some pregnancies that truly go on too long, and the placenta begins to deteriorate. However, there is no real way of predicting those pregnancies, and once one has been identified, it is, in the main, too late for such things as EPO and 5W. Then becomes the time for castor oil, for sex (natural prostogladins), for nipple stimulation, in an effort to avoid chemical induction. But such products as 5W and EPO come with an attitude that our bodies need preparation for birthing, that all women's bodies need this preparation, which is simply not the case at all.
Women need to be able to trust their bodies and their babies, trust for labour to happen at the time that is right for this baby, and not place reliance on outside factors.
I need to qualify my statements first of all by stating that I'm deliberately leaving out things such as chemical induction (whether through prostogladin gel, off-label prescription of cytotec, and/or intravenous adminstration of Pitocin). Those are, obviously, at the extreme of the attitude I'm going to be talking about, but each could easily constitute its own rant. In fact, if you are interested in cytotec, you can read an article from Mothering magazine about it. Also, for more on induction in general, see Let the Baby Decide: The Case Against Inducing Labor.
There is a tendency, however, even among those that reject medical management of pregnancy, to rely on herbal preparations and other 'natural' methods to encourage labour. There are herbal teas that are taken merely as tonics - one end of the spectrum - to those who take herbal preparations such as 5W and insert EPO capsules into their vagina nightly from week 35 or 36, in addition to trying just about every other method of natural induction there is.
While I can understand this attitude in the face of threatened chemical induction - yes, I'd try sex, nipple stimulation, and castor oil before pitocin, too - it seems that some people have this attitude that our bodies must be helped in some way.
I do admit that I personally drink red raspberry leaf tea, and some pregnancy teas. I do for a variety of reasons. One, it's a way to get to more fluid in me, since I still resist drinking water in the quantities that I should. Two, there is nutritional benefit that I can gain out of many of these herbs. I am not someone who eats well. I eat well within the strictures of food I will tolerate, but that list is painfully small even when I am not dealing with pregnancy-induced food aversions. Specifically, I don't eat any green leafy vegetables. The benefits I can get, however small, out of some small amount of nettle, alfalfa, and red raspberry leaf are well worth it to me. Lastly, I see these teas as a tonic. When I am not pregnant, I will drink red raspberry leaf tea, especially around that time of the month.
However, I don't drink these teas to get an easier labour, nor a faster labour. I know about the uterine toning benefits of red raspberry leaf tea, but I'm not sure that I'm going to get any of that 'action' from a singular cup per day - especially since any time I see it mentioned, there is a notation to drink at least three eight-ounce cups daily, or more.
More specifically, however, than teas, I want to address herbal preparations such as 5W and the use, both vaginally and orally, of evening primrose oil (EPO). EPO is said to soften the cervix and prepare it for labour, and 5W is also designed to prepare the body for labour - if not bring labour on sooner than otherwise. I don't know, exactly, since at least 5W seems to be less popular than it was even four years ago, but that is what I recall hearing, previously.
A woman's body, except in very rare circumstances, will go into labour at the appropriate time for her body and her baby. It is known that the state of the cervix is not predictive of how soon a woman will go into labour, nor does it indicate anything specific about how long or how easy her labour will be, once it comes. Preparing the body for labour with these ritual uses of herbs seems, in some ways, little different than the ritual of weekly cervical checks performed by the obstetrican. Some would argue, of course, that at least 5W or EPO causes no harm, and a cervical check introduces foreign objects into the vagina. Well, perhaps. But using EPO vaginally also introduces a foreign object into the vagina, and with more frequency than a weekly cervical check. Also, we don't, in actuality, know the full consequences of being born too soon. If 5W and EPO cause a baby to be born 'merely' a day or two earlier than s/he would otherwise have been, chances are there are few consequences. But the simple fact is that we do not know, the same argument used against chemical induction by obstetricans!
Yes, there are some pregnancies that truly go on too long, and the placenta begins to deteriorate. However, there is no real way of predicting those pregnancies, and once one has been identified, it is, in the main, too late for such things as EPO and 5W. Then becomes the time for castor oil, for sex (natural prostogladins), for nipple stimulation, in an effort to avoid chemical induction. But such products as 5W and EPO come with an attitude that our bodies need preparation for birthing, that all women's bodies need this preparation, which is simply not the case at all.
Women need to be able to trust their bodies and their babies, trust for labour to happen at the time that is right for this baby, and not place reliance on outside factors.