So far, we have always said that stress can prevent you from going into labor.
And now, all of a sudden, we tell you that stress can induce labor?
What’s going on? Answers are coming up! Yes, in this video, we are
going to share with you under which circumstances stress can induce labor. And we are also gonna
tell you what kind of foods could also help induce labor. Yes. And one more thing: in this video,
we also lift the secret why remedies like Castor oil can help induce labor. This is Nathalie, a
pregnancy and birth consultant and TCM therapist, and that's Mathias a researcher and science geek and
on this channel we help mommies and their babies naturally and science-based! So, let’s get started!
Alright, so first of all, please note that stress is an extremely complex process in the body
and scientists still struggle to explain what exactly stress does to a pregnant woman. What we
do know is that under certain circumstances stress hormones can hinder labor hormones. However,
if stress causes a certain reaction in your body, it can also induce labor as we are going to see.
Yes. So, in order to help you understand how stress can induce labor and why certain foods
can do the same, let us first look at 3 examples of how stress can have a different effect on the
body. So, imagine that you sit in your car and are on the way to pick up your child from nursery
or from school, okay? The problem is: you are already a bit late and you are stuck in a traffic jam. Yes. So,
imagine that feeling: you start biting your nails, you tense up, you feel the adrenaline, you may
even shout at the guy in front of you, right? Now, what does this kind of stress do to you? Well, you may
feel hot, you may start to sweat, your heartbeat may go up. But it’s not that you feel like particularly
nervous, or anxious, right? It’s just the kind of stress that we know very well from our daily life.
And for some women, this is exactly the kind of stress that can prevent them from going into
labor, particularly if it is ongoing stress, right? And so, when Nathalie treats them with acupuncture
and/or reflexology at the clinic to help their body cope with that stress, it can be enough for those
women to go into labor. Right! Now, let’s take a look at another example. Let’s say, you are 39
weeks pregnant and your doctor tells you: "Listen! If you don’t go into labor by the end of this week,
we are going to induce you", for whatever reason right? Now, for most women, this is going to be a
different kind of stress because there are most likely very different emotions involved here:
worries and fears. What if they need to induce me? Will it be more painful? What if it goes wrong?
Etc. And unless these feelings trigger a mechanical nervous reaction in your body,
such feelings are more likely to prevent labor, rather than inducing it. Yes. So, unfortunately,
putting that pressure on you, often does the exact opposite of what you hope for.
And in such cases, it is often not done with an acupuncture treatment to help the body cope
with the stress. We also need strategies to deal with the fears and worries, as we often see at
Nathalie’s clinic, right? Right! Now, let’s take a look at an example in which stress triggers the kind
of reaction in your body which could help induce labor. So, let’s imagine that you are back to school.
And you are about to sit for an exam. And let’s admit it. You kind of did study for the exam,
but you also know that you are not that 100% prepared for it. And because of that you feel
very very nervous. And as always when we feel nervous, we develop what is called a nervous
stomach, meaning, that we feel the urge to empty our bowels. Yes. That’s very much me when I was
a teenager, so, about 5 years ago, right? I was always nervous when I had exams and spent hours
on the toilet. And this is the perfect example of stress which could help induce labor. Why is that?
Well, in order to understand why nervous stress is supposed to induce labor, we first need to look
into a female pelvis and see what kind of organs we can find in there. We did this already in our
last video that we published, but let’s just do it again very briefly, in case you didn’t see it.
So, this is a female pelvis, right? This little thing here at the front is your pubis symphysis.
Yes. Behind the pubis symphysis is your bladder. And then behind the bladder is your uterus.
Just keep in mind that when you are pregnant, particularly when you are close to your due date,
then your uterus would obviously be much bigger than you can see here, right? Anyways,
behind the uterus, we can find the colon. And right in between
the colon is the small intestine. Now, here is the secret why many natural tools like Castor
oil or the Midwife’s brew can often help a woman to naturally induce labor. Castor oil, which is
also contained in the Midwife’s brew, by the way, is a laxative. And when we drink Castor oil, it
is going to trigger an activity in our intestines. And if that intestinal activity is strong enough,
then it could stimulate the uterine muscles which, as a result, may start to contract.
Yes. And that’s possible because if you imagine the uterus to be larger than on this picture,
then we can see that the uterus touches the intestines. And so, their location next to each
other is ideal for a spill-over of any intestinal activity on the uterine muscles. Now, getting back
to our nervous stomach. If stress causes a nervous stomach and if that nervous stomach triggers a
strong enough activity in your intestinal muscles, then it’s possible that – similar to Castor
oil – it has a spillover effect on your uterine muscles. Yes! Having said that, if you follow our channel,
then you probably know that we always say that natural labor induction is only likely to work
if your body is really ready for labor, right? And now you probably also understand why this must be true
because if it were not true, then it would happen that you go into preterm labor
just because you are sitting for an exam when you are 26 weeks pregnant, for instance, right?
And of course, that normally doesn’t happen right? That said, please note that many
scientific studies have shown that there are indeed situations in which stress can also cause
preterm-labor. However, this is normally only possible in cases of extreme stress, you know,
such as a shock or because a woman is suddenly in grief, right? So, that’s that.
At the beginning we told you that there are certain kinds of foods
which could have the same effect on the body as stress and Castor oil. In other words,
foods which could help you induce labor. And based on the information that we have presented so far,
you probably already know what kind of foods could trigger a reaction in your intestines.
Well, spicy foods, right? Right! In fact, this is another question that we often receive:
can spicy food induce labor? And the answer is, yes, absolutely because it could trigger
the same reaction in your intestine that we explained in this video. But similar to stress,
it is only likely to work if your body is ready for labor. Yes, however, please keep
in mind that even if your body IS ready for labor, spicy food may still not work for you.
Let me give you an example in order to help you understand when spicy food will not help you induce labor.
We currently live in London in the UK. And here in London, there are a lot of Indian people.
And because of that you can obviously find a lot of really really great Indian
restaurants. They serve unbelievable good food. Now, on one occasion, we went to this
new Indian place, right? And I ordered a dish that appealed to me. And at the same time,
there was this Indian family right next to us whose daughter ordered the same dish as I did. The
daughter must have been 4 or 5 years old tops, right? Now, we received the food at around the same
time, right? I tried a spoon full. Well, that’s spicy. Tried another spoon full, that’s really spicy.
Tried a third spoon full, no, cannot do it. I started to sweat, I felt really bad. It was just too
spicy for me, right? To my embarrassment, the little girl next to us, ate the same dish like this:
Mmmm, mommy, that’s really good I like it…. Didn’t even blink with an eye. No sweating. Not a single
reaction. Not so in my case. In fact, over the next 3 days or so, our toilet became my best friend.
So, why do I tell you this? Well, if you are used to spicy food, then spicy food is less likely to
cause the kind of activity in your intestines that you need in order to trigger uterine contractions, right?
And in such a case, it has nothing to do with the fact that your body is not prepared.
The problem is simply that your body is used to spicy food!
How can we use what we have learned in this video to our advantage if we want to help the body go
into labor. Well, first of all, most women do get a bit nervous at the end of their pregnancy
because of the upcoming birth. This can be a good thing, as long as your body’s reaction to that
stress involves a nervous stomach and does not involve an excessive release of stress hormones
which interfere with labor hormones, right? Yes. Because of that, we still always recommend trying to relax
at the end of your pregnancy, for example, with yoga, or with mediation, or acupuncture, in order to avoid
that stress hormones gain the upper hand here, right? Second, if fears and worries play a role in your
pregnancy, it can be a good thing to address them with appropriate strategies, for example,
by talking about your fears and worries. Right. And third, we hope that our video
helped you understand how you can mimic similar mechanical reactions in your body
with the help of spicy food or with Castor oil. However, please always keep in mind that your body
is normally going to react to very spicy food and Castor oil with diarrhea and in rare cases with
vomiting. And both should not be taken lightly because it can dehydrate the body. So please
be very careful and always talk with your doctor about your plans first. Right! And finally, please also
keep in mind that natural labor induction almost never works if your body is not ready for labor.
Meaning that you can spend hours emptying your bowels because of a nervous stomach or because of
spicy food or Castor oil, it’s still no guarantee that you go into labor if your body is not ready
for labor. Yes. So, if you have plans to naturally induce labor, the first step should always be
to help your body prepare for labor which we normally do from week 37 of a pregnancy onwards.
If you wanna know how, check out the video that should now pop up at the top of your video screen.
If it does not, you can also find the link in the description below this video! Right!
If you have found this video helpful, we would be super grateful if you could leave us a like
or even a comment in the comment section below! Yes! And for more useful tips and
tools on pregnancy and baby-related topics, make sure to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell!