castor oil...???

just wondering if anyone besides me has any experience with drinking castor oil to "attempt" to start labor???   Any stories you've heard???  Drs said anything to you about it???

Thanks

no plans to do it again... just curious

I was over due with my son and tried it!! It was nasty...not sure if this caused it or not but my son was born with Meconium...where they poop inside you. It can be very dangerous!

Jackie

I admit I tried it with my son but I couldn't get enough down to make a difference. it was too nasty THEN I read about all the risks and regretted it.  won't ever do it or suggest it.

I took it with all three of my girls. They were all born the same day, that I took it that is. This was years ago so I don't know what is available now. With the first one they had a kind of milky one available. I mixed it with orange juice and it wasn't too bad. The next two I couldn't find that one so I took the regular oily one. Kind taste like melted lipstick! Small bottle though. Now I really only had what I don't even consider problem with the first one other than right before she was born I had to go to the bathroom really bad then threw up and I was miraculously 8 cent. dilated and born 15 minutes later. But it is a natural laxative and make your stomach contract along with your uterus. Just want to mention my doctor was not in on it. I never told them. But I had a few good experiences. 3 to be exact

Tammy 

Thanks guys....  I took it with my son and water broke several hours later after being on the toilet the whole time. LOL   I drank it from the bottle (oily kind) like it was a shot....   I guess the "best" way to take it is in scrambled eggs... "apparently"...

thanks for your input :-)

Yes, I did with Daniel at the suggestion of my OB.  The risks are all a myth.

The recipe that I did was as such:

2oz of castor oil with just enough lemon juice to "cut" the oil.  Chug it, then take a swig of a carbonated beverage, swish in mouth and spit out (you want carbonated to get the bubbles around the teeth and such).  Take a warm rag and wipe the inside of your mouth out, then take another sip of the carbonate beverage and swallow to get the taste out.

I didn't taste it.

It worked.

even though it can be widely supported not all the risks are a myth.  a child CAN poop because of it. and CAN breathe that in.  that is not a myth.

Well, no, meconium is not a myth, but the myth that castor oil causes meconium in the amniotic fluid is.

Meconium happens when the baby gets stressed.  Castor oil simply causes the body to have smooth muscle contractions in the uterine wall.

Daniel was a NICU baby -- he didn't get enough surfactant down into the bottom lobes of his lungs when he was first born.  One of the few babies on this board that had a downgrading APGAR.  I was absolutely certain the castor oil did this to him.  I mean, hysterically certain that I caused my baby to be in the NICU.  The NICU nurses told me no.  The postpartum nurses told me no.  The NICU charge nurse told me no.  The postpartum charge nurse told me no.  The NICU pediatrican told me no.  My OBs (all three of them -- I went to a med school) told me no.  I mean they had to sedate me hysterically sure I put my baby in the NICU.  Each and every one of them assured me that castor oil could do no such thing to a baby, that all of the myths were just that -- myths.

That yes, meconium can happen (didn't to mine, but could) but not due to the castor oil.

If it were just one doc or nurse, I'd write it off.  But I was so worried, that I asked every single one of them and they all said the same thing.  Plus most midwives still use this as a method for overdue mothers for a reason -- it's safe.

my input is that I did the castor oil with my son and after my water broke... 19 hrs of labor... and  c-section... he did not have meconium.... so im not sure about all of that...

but thanks for everyones input :-)