Ways of inducing labour

Through the course of my pregnancy, I've learnt through books and listening to other people- friends, doctors, acquaintances, strangers even- of the various methods of inducing labour. All of which I'm trying to avoid for now, well, till Monday at least.

1. Drink raspberry tea.
2. Having sex, protected and unprotected, near the due date.
3. Orgasms
4. Fiddling around with one's nipples.
5. Swimming breast stroke.
6. Walking, shopping and generally being on one's legs.
7. Carrying heavy things.
8. Eat spicy food.
9. Squatting for long periods of time (although that's punishment on its own)

10. My favourite- having the mother over with 3 children, ages 8, 6 and 7 months, with their maid in tow, taking over all parts of my house and throwing my plans of having a quiet afternoon in bed out the window totally! Couple that with the mother nagging you about how you're supposed to be resting in bed but also allowing the children to run amok and need constant supervision. There was also the constant need to keep the older two children fed and entertained. All of which seemed to fall on my shoulders while my mother went about fussing about how tiny my kitchen was and how impractical the configuration of the baby furniture was.

This led to numerous text messages to Packrat and an extreme sense of helplessness because I couldn't do anything about it or chase them out of the house, although that was quite tempting. What I didn't understand was how, any woman who's been pregnant before could possibly think that it was a good idea for someone who was about 37 weeks pregnant with twins to have her house invaded by a bevy of children who all had different needs and demands. And on top of that, remind her constantly that she was supposed to be resting in bed.

It got me extremely frustrated and angsty. It also got me panicky about how I was going to deal with the invasion of people that would inevitably follow the birth of the bubs. And that led to me being panicky about a whole host of other things which eventually led to me being reduced into a puddle of tears and Packrat being worried that that would induce labour.

Anyway, thankfully, it's the next day and I've survived the invasion and feel slightly more peaceful now. Although, like the cat with 9 lives, I don't know how many more of these I can take without actually going into labour.

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