Not silly at all Celsie, in fact Fletch and I both started up threads about a month ago in the Labour and Birth thread asking all these same questions

RLT is a uterine tonic, as far as I can tell that means that it helps to the uterus to contract more efficiently during labour. Therefore possibly making it shorter? Or at least helping it not to go on and on. It certainly does seem to be popular, and what my Ob said about it sold me LOL! I figure he's seen ALOT of women labour (and he's not the sort that arrives 5 mins before the baby pops out) and if he thinks it's that effective then it's worth it.

I told someone who has two kids about it the other day, she was asking what it does and when I told her she said "Do it! Even if it only cuts ten minutes off your labour, it's worth it!" I'm not sure if that was meant to make me feel better or worse ROFL!

Here are the links to the threads I mentioned

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...ad.php?t=32327

What does RLT actually DO?

This is an excerpt from one of the studies shown in the second thread, hopefully this explains it better than I did LOL

Raspberry leaf was found to cause a relaxant effect on the uterus. It was believed that this relaxant effect caused the uterine contractions of labour to become better coordinated and more efficient, thus shortening the length of labour. It is also commonly assumed that women who take raspberry leaf throughout labour will have an improved second and third stage of labour. Consequently there is supposed to be a reduced risk of bleeding after birth.

It also states later on in the study that it can increase BHs, which I think might be the case with me. But then again, maybe that was just going to happen anyway????