32 weeks!!! I had my BPP on Tuesday. All is good. Baby is moving all around, and the ultrasound again took like 5 minutes. I also had my blood re-checked. Platelets are still low, but don’t appear to be dropping very fast. So that’s good.
I also did some research on natural induction, because I don’t want to be medically induced if I go past 40 (or 41) weeks.
This article suggests that medical induction of labor increased from 9.5% in 1990 to 23.2% in 2011:
It also notes that medical induction is associated with lower birth weight and increased odds of C-section. It considered non-medical methods of induction, suggesting evidence is “sparse,” but “mixed” for sex, “tentatively positive” for nipple stimulation, and “ineffective” for castor oil (and potentially harmful). The study really focuses on who attempts natural induction (and natural pain management) versus considering what actually works. (No surprise, women who use doulas are much more likely to avoid medical reliance on either one.)
This article goes through induction methods—both “natural” and medical—and considers their effectiveness and potential negative outcomes.
As it related to “natural” methods (castor oil, acupuncture, breast stimulation, sex, “homeopathic” methods, and hypnotic relaxation), the study appeared to conclude that more research was needed. Acupuncture appeared to decrease the need for other forms of induction, as did breast stimulation. Castor oil, sex, and hypnotic relaxation did not appear to help, but women using castor oil had increased side effects (nausea). The article did not consider walking, eating dates, eating black licorice, or using evening primrose oil, other methods old wives swear by.
(This website suggests that drinking red raspberry tea, eating greasy food, or eating pineapple don’t help, and that eating spicy food or using black and blue cohosh may be harmful: http://www.birthbeyondbias.com/birthbeyondbias/2014/4/21/ways-to-naturally-induce-labor)
This is a crazy article—it suggest that rates of autism might be increased in children whose mothers were induced. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/1725449 Whaaa? I can’t imagine why that would be, unless there’s some association that they did not control for (like older mothers are more likely to be induced / more likely to have children with autism.)
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