Pregnancy Community

I am sorry to say, I have no knowledge on these medications other than what I just read.

It seems as if black cohosh is used to try and abort pregnancies. Blue cohosh is supposedly used for possible induction of labor or trying to deliver a placenta after birth.

Hopefully someone has some knowledge and use of these medications.

Oh thank you so much for letting me know. I deffinately do not want to abort my baby. I am due in 14weeks. I just want to have my baby on time. I had my last 1 a week and a half over my due date and she weighed 9 lbs. I could barely move the last 2 weeks. I gained 50 lbs with her and I am not wanting that agian. This is the only thing I heard that may work. As an expert in delivery, would you have any suggestions on something I could use that may work to set me into labor? Contractions are bad, but I'll take them if I can have the baby on time. I am so scared to have another 9 lb baby. I also tried castor oil with my last 1 and I will never do that again. It just made me have horrible gas pains in my tummy, NOT CONTRACTIONS, and I did not go into labor. It was terrible. Plus a friend of mine did that and she ended up having diarrhea during the first 6 hrs of labor and pooped everytime she had a contraction. GROSS! I do not want that. Sex has made me soften a bit, nipple stimulation didn't work. Those are all I tried with my last. Like I said I went late with her. I will try anything safe to ease my baby out. I plan on taking EPO to soften my cervix, but I don't think that'll help contractions and my cervix was ready at 37weeks with my daughter. Just didn't do any good.

Sometimes, nature is the safest way to go. Meaning, just let your pregnancy go as it is supposed to go. It sounds as if you delivered vaginally so labor hopefully will go easier this time.

Don't gain as much weight this pregnancy as last. That should help. I am not sure anything really works, but some swear by many of the things you mentioned.

Good luck.

I read this post when it was new, but didn't know anything about it then. I went to childbirth class this weekend and the L&D Nurse who taught the class (very long career and very knowledgable) discussed it and it reminded me of this post. She said the problem with the herbal things is they are not regulated, so you could go into one store and get the black or blue cohosh and it might have very little of the ingredient in it, but you could go in another store and get one that is really concentrated. There is no way to know how strong it is.

She said once she had a patient who tried it and got a really strong batch and she ended up having uterine rupture and losing the baby. Not worth it in my opinion! Good luck, I hope your LO comes on the early side for you as I also was 9 days late with my first who was 8lb 10oz, so I know the feeling.

OMG... Thank you so much for posting this. I had no idea that could happen. I knew that they were not regulated, but I really didn't think something that terrible could happen. You are 100% right! My baby is so much more important to me than that. It is not worth it to have him early in that case. I can wait! Thank you again.

Hello,

Just wanted to input: Blue cohosh, while it has been used successfully for perhaps hundreds [thousands?> of years to ease and make more effective, labor contractions...there can be some issues with it.
a> it can elevate blood pressure,
b> it could cause allergic reaction,
c>it has not been tested to determine at least, what is the effective dose.
IMHO, I would err on the side of caution, and use very little.

Just because something is "natural" does not automatically mean it is perfectly safe. Supplements and herbs need evaluated individually per person, in light of that individual's overall conditions, by someone with better experience using it.

In an alternative practice office I have worked in, we avoided using Herbal caulophyllum/blue cohosh [and other herbs> simply because they could potentially cause allergic reactions--particularly when a woman is pregnant and has more off-kilter hormones and/or sensitivities.


What we DID: offered HOMEOPATHIC versions of this and others, to assist women to have a more effective, less traumatic labor. It did seem to work.

Homeopathic dilutions have NO adverse or interactive effect: they either work or they don't.
NO drug interactions ever happened using homeopathic dilutions [6C; 30C; 200C etc.>
If it works, great, if it does not, no harm has been done.
There is controversy whether homeopathic dilutions can actually work, if it is really a placebo effect, etc.

If it is a placebo, it is so good, it works on babies and pets who do not realize what's going on: the remedies simply did a great job with no adverse problems.
They even did a great job on persons who were total skeptics, despite their feeling it couldn't work-at least once per case, often very dramatically [i.e.: resolving an infection in a cat in 24 hours; resolving a migraine in an adult within a minute; resolving a brain tumor in a year; etc.>.

Our pregnant Moms used homeopathic caulophyllum 30C, usually, a few pellets or drops, started using that daily, about 1 month prior to the delivery date. At onset of contractions, they might increase that to 200C, increasing that to hourly to every half hour as contractions got closer together.
Our patients usually learned to use remedies as best helped them [more like PRN in mainstream jargon>, but stopped using anything when they stopped taking anything by mouth at that point in labor and delivery.
Always had great L&D's using it---the good parts of it without the potentially bad.