Evening Primrose Oil

[blue daisy]

Hey all

found some interesting info on the use of evening primrose oil in pregnancy that I thought I would share with you

Oral evening primrose oil: its effect on length of pregnancy and selected intrapartum outcomes in low-risk nulliparous women.
Dove D, Johnson P.
Birth Center: Holistic Women's Health Care, L. L. C., Wilmington, DE 19805, USA.
Evening primrose oil is widely used by many midwives to hasten cervical ripening in an effort to shorten labor and decrease the incidence of postdates pregnancies. Although its efficacy has been studied in the relief of symptoms of a number of medical conditions, its use has not been well studied, if at all, for the purpose of cervical ripening. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of oral evening primrose oil on the length of pregnancy and selected intrapartum outcomes in low-risk nulliparous women. A two group retrospective quasi-experimental design conducted on a sample of women who received care in a birth center, compared selected outcomes of 54 women taking evening primrose oil in their pregnancy with a control group of 54 women who did not. Findings suggest that the oral administration of evening primrose oil from the 37th gestational week until birth does not shorten gestation or decrease the overall length of labor. Further, the use of orally administered evening primrose oil may be associated with an increase in the incidence of prolonged rupture of membranes, oxytocin augmentation, arrest of descent, and vacuum extraction.

xx yogababy

[Snacks]

Goodness me... That's interesting. I wonder about the efficacy of using EPO vaginally in the last weeks of pregnancy for cervix ripening?? (If that was a waste of time, it was also a waste of money, because I had to ditch all those trashed undies )

[chocolatecatty]

didnt' you use a pad Amy?!!!!

Soooo embarrassing....I used EPO both orally and otherly and my midwife had to do a LVS around 37 weeks and I had to tell her 'it might be a bit oily down there' and explain why. She was flabbergasted and had never heard of it before! I was so red! Anyway!

Interesting what it says about prolonged rupture of membranes. I was 10cm when I hit the hospital and my freaking waters refused to break which was quite uncomfortable so I got them broken, which was annoying as it ruined my natural labour! Anyway!

[CatherineL]

Hmmm... interesting! I took them orally and internally - I did have a short labor.. but my waters didn't break until she was crowning and I also went 6 days over.

[Janie]

Mmmmmm, very interesting. I would like to see a study on women who have used it vaginally..........

[Snacks]

didnt' you use a pad Amy?!!!!

Yep. Still trashed!

[Claire]

I didn't use them internally but I took them orally. My membranes finally ruptured just before I pushed his head out.

[chocolatecatty]

Oh wow. That's interesting that your waters only broke at the last minute. Maybe next time (if it happens) I'll leave them too.

[EmmaEliza]

It is interesting, would be good to do a poll of all the women on here that took it and the affects if any they had.

I took it with my last, however started taking it internally as well a little earlier than i should have. i had been taking them internally for 3 days when i went into pre term labour a month early. My sister had been getting S & S done with her fourth in her last month (hubby was a Dr and OB in training) and i kept telling her to use the stuff, He then got some for her did a S & S and squeezed 2 onto her cervix and she went into labour that night.

In saying that i had a friend who it didnt work for, so in the end i think if its not going to do any harm and if there is a chance of it helping than why not. As my ob said look there is no proof to say it works but if you want to try by all means do so.

It also has many other benefits as well that are good for us.

Next pregnancy i again will take it just in case it was what brought things on for my sister and i