The best way to induce labor

The BEST trick to go into labor FAST

Here’s the deal. There’s no true sure-fire way to induce labor. But there is one thing that has always worked for me.

I believe one of the best ways to KEEP yourself from going into labor, or even prolong labor itself, is to be distracted and stressed out. I’ve experienced this first-hand several times with my first four babies, and fully expect the trend to continue.

When you’re distracted, you can’t let your body do its thing.

When you’re stressed out, you actually make it harder for your body to do its thing.

So how can you make sure these two critical things don’t happen?

• When you’re coming up on your due date (and your doc or midwife says it’s safe to have the baby whenever–usually 37 weeks on), plan a “me” day, or even a few hours of “me” time, when you don’t have anything else to worry about. I’ve done anything from go and get a massage and coffee to spend a couple hours at the pool, relaxing, then doing some self-pampering. Think of the activities that MOST recharge you internally, and do those without anything else bothering you. Turn the phone off, get the kids a babysitter, whatever you need to do. Make your goal to be refreshed at the end of it.
• DON’T (I repeat, DON’T!) invite a bunch of people to your birth! It’s not a party, as much as we’d like it to be. You need to be focused on one of the most important tasks of your life, bringing a new being out into the world. I’ve had 8 hour labors, a 6 hour labor, and a SIXTEEN hour labor–and I’ll give you one guess what else was going on in that 16 hour labor. A house full of people! It wasn’t even my first baby, it was my third–I should have known better. ;) The 6 hour birth was the 4th one, cause I finally learned my lesson and kicked everybody out! Haha.

The bottom line? If you’re focused and calm, you make it easy for your little one to enter the world. Your muscles aren’t tight, and your body is ready. Though there are plenty of other physical ways you can attempt to induce labor, I believe these are the most important factors in getting ANY of those to work in the first place.