A bit early i know but ...

hello ladies just popped over from expecting, i hope you dont mind but just wondered if any of you can help me.

i cant help but think about giving birth. i know its a long way off for me yet but im always thinking about it. just a couple of things i would like to know, you ladies who have taken rasberry leaf tea: ive heard there is a capsule format. does this work just as good and at what point did you start taking it, and how many? i cant stand the taste of tea, even tried these blackcurent tea etc... but just cant stand them.
also, cant remeber wher but i heard a while ago that rubbing vaseline down there towards the end of pg helps soften the opening, is this true or have any of you ladies done anything to help prevent tearing etc....
thanks ladies
hope you are all well
tc
sarah 9+6

Helloooooo stranger!!

Have just pm you. Huge congratulations on getting your BFP

Well for the girl who has encountered a turkey baster thought you might want to try nipple stimulation (not yet obviously). Read up on it cos there is a specific way to do it (well for your DP to do it ). Some women can have tremendous pain & go in to labour there then apparently. I went 4 days over but it was still good to try it
I did the vaseline thing but ended up having a c-section so not sure how that would have gone!?

tc Caz xxx

Hiya hunny

When I had Riley, I took Raspberry leaf tabs and i think I took them 3 times a day, not sure but I did whatever it said on the bottle lol. I got mine form Good old Holland and Barrat. But its hard to know if they did help as Riley was Back-to-back and also "brow Presentation" (trying to come out face first lol). So he got a bit stuck and My pushing stage was over and hour and a half!
but to be fair my whole labour was only around 8hours or so from my drip going up to induce my contractions ( i had pre eclampsia and they had to get him out ) lol. typical me nothing was ever gunna be simple.

BUT I loved every second of my labour! I did hav to hav an Epidural which I was really against, but I think its important to remember that sometimes you might need to change your birth plan to fit in with your particular labour. And not to feel like you hav failed in any way if you do end up doing something that wasnt on ur plan.

With the tearing, I think when I have baby No 2 I will Definately do Perineal Massage because I did hav a pretty mean tear with Riley, which I have to say has healed fabulously and TBH I feel no different down there from before I had him! A lot of people I spoke to when I was pregnant, used Olive oil to massage the perineum for a few weeks before their due date and they think it really helped them. also apparently being in water during ur labour at some point will help to soften this area and can make it more stretchy!

I really did enjoy giving birth and I cant wait to do it again. enjoy the next few months hunny and It'll be great to see you move over to this board when baby arrives x x x x

hi

Hi there,
Seems so long ago that I was in ur shoes.My baby is now 13 n a half week old!
Well I tk raspberry leaf tea rite at the end. I was 38 week n sick of waiting!!! It helped me in 2nd stage of labour. Was much easier than 1st pregnancies when I didn't take em n much quicker!
They say not 2 take til nearly at term, 3rd trimester as can bring on early labour n complications etc.
As 4 the tearing. I didnt' use owt, neva gave it a thought 2b honest!
Luckily I didn't tear or rip in either of my labours just grazed which was sore 4 a day or 2 n then healed.
good luck with ur pregnancy hun, all the best.
mummyand2. xx

Oh....

i tk the tablets n wrked me! i tk alot! 1 every so many hours. woteva it said on pack i rek!!!