At the end of pregnancy, you may have people telling you you have “dropped” or asking if you have “dropped”. People will also call this “lightening”. This is a phenomena that occurs distinctly for some women in that they suddenly feel that the baby drops into the pelvis. They feel increased pelvic pressure and feel it is easier to breath. This is not something that happens for all women and it not a sign of impending labor or delivery when or if it does happen.
Despite what you will hear again and again, there is no correlation between the fetal heart rate and the sex of the baby.
The rumor is that if you have heartburn the baby will have lots of hair. This one is fun but not likely grounded in truth. Somebody has tried to study it and they found a correlation but we don’t really consider asking a few women after delivery about their heartburn good science.
There is no distinct plug of mucous like a cork that keeps the baby in. Towards the end of pregnancy your cervix is softening. This creates a large amount of mucousy discharge and depending on how that either comes out or collects, this can form a plug. And when the time is right, or enough has collected this will come out. It may look like a large amount of elephant snot and sometimes has a little blood in it. It is not a sign of labor or delivery or of anything really different. You may notice this at anytime that the vaginal and cervical secretions have collected and then come out. Or you may not see it, if it comes out as it forms.
Seriously, if there even a remote way to get labor started with natural methods, we’d be the first pushing it. However, to our knowledge there is nothing that truly works. Having said that, we think that anything will work if you are about to go into labor anyway, or maybe somethings could hasten the process a little bit. So why not try a few. We’ve listed what is known about the following:
Castor oil-this is the only DON’T do. It will give you runny, stinky diarrhea and studies are not supportive of it working.
Sex-again the studies are not supportive, but at least there is a little logic in that there is prostaglandin in semen and we use prostaglandin to induce labor, so why not. Also, with orgasm you contract, maybe it could push you over the edge.
Walking-not an inducer but it can keep you sane and active at time when you may be tempted to flop on the couch.
Spicy foods-can’t really study this but why not try
Stripping the membranes-this is something your provider does where when your provider checks the cervix, your provider sweeps their finger on the inside of the cervix to possibly irritate. Studies do not support that this is effective and it can be painful.
Acupuncture-this one that may be getting some increased data backup. Currently there is no solid data supporting but also no harm.
The umbilical cord is the connection from the baby to the placenta. It is the way that the baby gets its food and oxygen. There are many scary stories out there about the umbilical cord wrapping around the baby and causing harm. The truth is that in most pregnancies the umbilical cord wraps around the baby a bit and it is made to do this. We will often note the cord loosely around the baby neck at delivery, this does not cause harm. Your movements do not effect how the baby moves or how the cord moves. So please don’t worry about being active or bending down as this will not case the cord to wrap or cause a problem.