Are you getting close to, or past your due date, and looking for some labor inducing recipes to jump start contractions? While you might be skeptical about their effectiveness, and may even consider them an old wives’ tale, when you’re way past your due date, or facing a possible induction, you’re probably desperate and willing to try out anything.
And it turns out, there are certain foods that induce labor and can help make things progress for you.
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The advice included in this article is meant for informational purposes only. Please consult your care provider before making any decisions regarding your pregnancy.
Can Foods Really Induce Labor?
Medical practitioners suggest a variety of different applications to help initiate labor in women who are past their due date, and trying out certain foods is one of them.
A quick Google search might land you a lot of different foods worth trying out, but most of them are just an old wives’ tales and don’t have any research to back up their effectiveness.
Many other foods, when consumed, can also lead to diarrhea, severe digestive distress and might pose health risks.
What to eat to start labor?
The list of foods that can help induce labor is actually surprisingly short, if you consider the ones that are actually backed up by scientific evidence.
- Pineapple: This fruit is believed to initiate labor thanks to its bromelain content, which can cause the cervix to soften.
- Dates: Dates are another popular labor inducing food that actually have some science behind them. The consumption of dates towards the final weeks of pregnancy has been known to shorten the duration of labor and reduce the need of augmentation to speed up childbirth. Learn how to eat dates during pregnancy here.
- Red Raspberry Leaf Tea: This refreshing drink can not just induce labor but also shorten it, and at the same time, strengthen the uterine muscles. Read more about the tea and raspberry leaf tea labor stories.
- Evening Primrose Oil: Available in the form of tablets, these are again, thought to induce labor by softening the cervix.
Apart from these, spicy food in general, is also believed to help bring about contractions and initiate labor.
Need more healthy pregnancy recipes for every trimester?
Best Recipes That Induce Labor
Here are some good recipes that can help you kickstart your labor and get the baby to come! This is a list of some of the best handpicked labor inducing recipes you can try at home.
These No Bake Date Balls for Pregnancy are a must try. Date fruit is one of the top foods for inducing labor. These little energy bites make the perfect snack for when your due date is approaching.
When you’re past your due date and feel like you just can’t contain your baby anymore, and the idea of spending more than 20 minutes in the kitchen feels like a task, but try this recipe out.
It is incredibly simple- takes a few minutes to put together, and has a bit of heat, which is supposed to help get things moving and put you into labor.
Of course, you can always add in some veggies to make it more of a nutritious and healthy meal.
A super strength pregnancy labor tea with red raspberry leaf to help induce labor and bring on faster delivery. Known to get labor going, have a batch of this tea handy to drink once contractions start. One to try especially if your previous labors have been long.
If you haven’t already heard all the fuss about this one, you’re probably missing out! There’s a famous Italian restaurant in Georgia that serves eggplant parmesan which could help you go into labor.
The dish has supposedly helped hundreds of full term pregnant women get into labor naturally.
But that’s not even the best part- the official website has the entire recipe up there for you to recreate it in your kitchen.
While the recipe is super detailed, and needs you to make the marinara sauce from scratch, you could totally use a store-bought sauce instead to cut down the cooking time.
And if you’re wondering what the science behind the eggplant parmesan causing contractions really is, well, that part is still a bit of mystery.
This smoothie is a delicious blend of cherries, berries, greens and date fruit for added nutrition during pregnancy. This is another great date fruit recipe to try to help induce labor.
More Date Fruit Recipes for Pregnancy to try!
It might seem kinda crazy, but lots of moms swear by this Maternity Salad Recipe from a cafe in Studio City, California.
If you’ve been consciously trying to eat healthy throughout your pregnancy, but are still on the lookout for some recipes that induce labor, this one ticks all the boxes.
While the ingredients in this salad are super simple- you might be using them on a daily basis already, what makes it a tad bit different is the use of balsamic vinegar, which is supposed to be helpful in getting your body ready for labor.
If you’re looking for an easy recipe that can naturally induce labor, you’ve got to give this a shot.
Keep getting hit by those junk food cravings as you inch closer to your due date? Time to try your hands at a preggo pizza that gets you into labor- just what you have been waiting for.
It all started with a restaurant serving a full term woman an overloaded pizza with every kind of topping available, the woman having the baby the same evening and then the craze following on.
There’s no special pizza recipe you need to follow- all you need to do is spice up your pizza sauce a bit (spicy food has been found to help you get into labor) and load up on the toppings. This is then supposed to help you make a bit uncomfortable when it comes to digestion, and eventually, initiate cramping and get things going.
Pineapples and dates are two foods that have a reputation of being helpful in inducing labor, and this little drink packs in the goodness of them both.
You can whip this drink up quickly using just a few ingredients, and enjoy it right away. It might seem surprising, but the flavor pairing of dates and pineapple actually works really well.
Best of all, you can also make this as a healthy drink for everyone else in the family.
And of course, there had to be something for all those moms with a sweet tooth.
These cookies are loaded with flavor and contain a blend of three ingredients- ginger, cayenne pepper and cinnamon- that are speculated to be helpful in jump starting labor.
They have a nice balance between the earthiness of the spices and the sweetness that the cookies should have, which makes them an absolute must-try.
Share your experience with labor inducing recipes in the comments below! Try one of these? Make sure come back and let us know which recipes actually work!!
Preparing for labor & delivery? Check out our tips for preparing for natural labor.
More Pregnancy Recipes & Meals
Our goal here at Birth Eat Love is to make healthy eating easier for pregnant Moms. Here are some of our best resources for figuring out what to eat while pregnant:
Healthy Pregnancy Breakfast Ideas
Guide to Pregnancy Meal Planning (using Pinterest!)
Clean Eating Pregnancy Recipes Collection
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