Your pregnancy is almost over. The baby’s arrival is so close, yet not close enough! When is your child finally going to arrive? How can you get it out sooner?
You’re excited, nervous, uncomfortable, and eager for your baby to arrive. You might even find yourself searching the internet for various ways to speed up delivery, especially if you’ve hit that 40-week benchmark, and there is no sign of labor.
You’re feeling like it’s time to take matters into your own hands and induce labor at home. While searching the internet, you may come across various ways to induce labor naturally: go for a walk, bounce on an exercise ball, have sexual intercourse, or drink pregnancy tea.
There are lots of possibilities out there as well as plenty of old wives’ tales about inducing labor naturally. One way suggested for inducing labor is to drink midwives’ brew.
What is midwives’ brew?
Midwives’ brew is an all-natural concoction of ingredients said to induce labor in the last few weeks of pregnancy. It has its benefits and drawbacks. However, the most important consideration before taking midwives’ brew is that it should only be taken under the supervision and approval of your healthcare provider.
This can’t be emphasized enough: while midwives’ brew may work for some pregnant women, it may not work for all of them. It’s incredibly important that you discuss this or any other at-home method of inducing labor with your healthcare provider.
What is in midwives’ brew?
A midwives’ brew recipe has castor oil as the main ingredient. What’s so special about castor oil? Let’s dive in.
Castor oil
Castor oil is commonly used as a laxative. It can cause muscle spasms in the intestines, which can then help bowel movements along. Castor oil may cause the same type of spasms in the uterine lining. Those spasms could become contractions and then trigger labor.
It’s extremely important to know that consuming castor oil before you are full-term could be very dangerous for you and the baby. Drink plenty of water when you do decide to ingest castor oil. It’s very dehydrating, which is not good for you or the baby.
Research has produced mixed evidence on castor oil helping to induce labor. There have been a number of studies yielding positive results or no results at all, meaning that castor oil didn’t seem to be the reason a number of women went into labor. While it may trigger contractions and spasms, it may be isolated to the digestive system and not constitute actual labor.
Personally, I think that makes a lot of sense, but it doesn’t seem like the most pleasant experience. Childbirth isn’t exactly glamorous on its own, so why throw fuel on the fire?
Castor oil can also cause cramping, diarrhea, and nausea. Again, that’s not ideal when going into labor. I wouldn’t want to have a laxative around that point. Who needs the grumbling and discomfort along with the painful contractions? However, some women get to a point in their pregnancy where they will try anything to move things along, regardless of how unpleasant it may seem.
As you can imagine, ingesting pure castor oil is pretty disgusting. It has the taste and consistency of petroleum jelly. I don’t see anyone wanting to force down a few tablespoons of that. For this reason, the midwives’ brew includes other ingredients to mask the taste of castor oil and temper the side effects.
Can you make midwives’ brew without castor oil?
The fact is that castor oil is the most important component in this recipe. It is not suggested to make midwives’ brew without it. However, some of the other ingredients can be substituted.
Other popular ingredients in midwives brew for inducing labor at home
There are different ingredients used in midwives’ brew, but you mostly find a combination of castor oil and:
Lemon verbena tea
Lemon verbena tea is considered another light laxative. It also has a calming and soothing effect on your muscles. It’s caffeine-free and generally viewed as safe during pregnancy. A lemon verbena extract may also work instead of tea though there’s no medical research to prove this.
You can substitute with other pregnant-friendly teas here if you wish. The tea should be caffeine-free and have similar calming effects. Some suggestions would be raspberry leaf or peppermint tea.
Apricot juice
The midwives’ brew uses apricot juice (or nectar) to help mask the unpleasant taste of castor oil. You don’t have to use it, but you might want to so the brew is tolerable. Alternatively, you could use pineapple, cranberry, grape, or another pasteurized juice.
In fact, pineapple is another food said to help induce labor. Why? A few studies have claimed that bromelain, an enzyme found in pineapple, can break down proteins in the uterine muscles that ultimately cause contractions.
Almond butter
Almond butter seems to be one of the most interesting additions to the recipe. Why would you need it in this type of drink? The almond butter is what helps the castor oil stick to your intestines rather than slide right through, which is what usually causes discomfort.
If you have a nut allergy, it’s important to avoid this ingredient. You could use another nut butter if you like. Most will have the same effect.
Does midwives’ brew work?
There isn’t a concrete answer that is based on factual evidence. As with a lot of all-natural pregnancy tricks and methods, there’s very little research into whether certain techniques are successful or safe. It’s considered unethical to test on pregnant women, so something like midwives’ brew hasn’t been studied thoroughly enough to be deemed 100% successful.
However, there are a lot of midwives’ brew success stories out there. Given the ingredients and the effects of each one, it would make sense that something like midwives’ brew would “get things moving.” Again, though, it could be other parts of your body, like the digestive system, having a reaction to the ingredients.
There have been numerous smaller studies showing mixed results. It seems as though most of the findings are positive and that castor oil does help. However, it’s impossible to know if these pregnant women were going into labor naturally or if the castor oil in the midwives’ brew was the reason.
For example, in a small study in 2011, about half of the women were given castor oil and the other half a placebo. The group given castor oil was found to be 3 times as likely to go into labor naturally as the placebo cohort. Other studies have come up with similar results, but it’s hard to pinpoint the castor oil or midwives’ brew as the reason the women went into labor.
Midwives’ brew recipe
Here is a midwives’ brew recipe with instructions on how to prepare the drink if you want to know how to induce labor at home.
Midwives’ brew
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp castor oil
- 2 Tbsps almond butter
- 10 fl oz apricot juice or nectar
- 8 fl oz lemon verbena tea
Instructions
- Brew 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) of lemon verbena tea with 1 tea bag, allowing it to steep for at least 10 minutes. Squeeze the liquid out of the tea bag before removing.
- After the tea has cooled a bit, combine all of the ingredients in a blender. You’ll want the tea to stay slightly warm so that the castor oil softens and liquifies more.
- Pour the midwives' brew into a cup and drink immediately.
Is midwives’ brew safe?
Again, it will be difficult to find hard evidence that midwives’ brew is 100% safe. There are plenty of midwives’ brew success stories, but there haven’t been many stories about it causing harm to the baby or mother.
So, generally, yes, the ingredients in the midwives’ brew are typically safe for pregnant women. However, some of them are only safe under certain conditions. To be sure that you’re making the safest decisions while considering midwives’ brew, keep in mind the following:
- Always talk to your healthcare provider first. Discuss all of the ingredients with them and work together if you need any substitutions.
- Don’t consume castor oil before 37-40 weeks (full term).
- Don’t overdo it. Consume the suggested amount only.
- Inform a partner or friend when you’re going to drink the midwives’ brew in case you start to feel any discomfort.
When is the best time to drink midwives’ brew?
Once you’ve checked off all of the things on the list above and have the green light, it’s time to consider when you should drink the midwives’ brew. It’s best to drink it on an empty stomach. It’s also important to try and consume the entire drink in about 30 minutes for the best results.
After that, you simply wait. Try to relax and not overdo it. Remember, some of the ingredients will cause digestive discomfort and maybe even diarrhea. So, you won’t want to be out and about after you have the drink. Generally, you should start seeing results in under 24-48 hours. Some women have claimed they went into labor in as little as 4 hours.
Every labor situation is different, and there are no hard rules or expectations when it comes to taking midwives’ brew. However, most women who do take it say that they start to have nausea, diarrhea, and other digestive discomforts.
Be sure to contact your midwife or doctor if you start to feel any pain or discomfort that seems alarming. If this is your first pregnancy, that statement might seem a little confusing because labor is painful, right?
Yes, but you should always trust your own body. If you feel like something is wrong, be sure to reach out. Listen to your providers when it comes to the key symptoms to look for when you start going into labor. Consistent and increasingly strong contractions are a tell-tale sign that the baby is coming.
It may even be helpful to use a journal or a contraction timer after you consume the brew. Jot down when you drink it and when you start feeling any differences. This information will be very helpful to your medical team.
Conclusion
Midwives’ brew will always be a hot topic among pregnant women. Some will swear it worked like a charm, others may say it just made them feel downright awful, and some will declare they would never touch the stuff.
We’ve learned that the ingredients and the recipe itself are safe when consumed under supervision and at the very end of the pregnancy. Castor oil is the magic ingredient here. If you can’t see yourself stomaching the oil or the drink, you may want to consider some other natural ways of inducing labor.
We’ve shared a few old wives’ tales before, and each has its own pros and cons. Personally, I’m a big fan of the bouncy ball and walking. My own situation never involved the waiting game of going into labor, but remember: every pregnancy is different, as is every childbirth.
We would love to hear the success or not-much-of-a-success stories of those who have tried midwives’ brew. If you haven’t already, is there anything that would stop you from trying it? Please share in the comments below.
