If you’re in the final weeks of pregnancy and counting down the days, you’re not alone. Most strategies for moving things along fall into two categories: things that may help labor start sooner, and things that can shorten labor once it begins. Some are backed by solid research, others are more tradition than science. Here’s what actually works, what’s worth trying, and what to skip.
Foods That May Shorten Labor
Eating dates in late pregnancy is one of the better-studied natural approaches. A meta-analysis found that women who ate date fruit in the final weeks arrived at the hospital already more dilated (about 1 cm more on average) and spent roughly 4.6 fewer hours in early labor compared to women who didn’t. The second stage of labor, the pushing phase, was also about 8 minutes shorter. Perhaps most notably, women who ate dates were 40% less likely to need medical induction or augmentation of labor. Most of the studies used about 6 dates per day starting around 36 weeks.
Raspberry leaf tea is another popular option, though the evidence is more modest. A clinical study of women who took raspberry leaf tablets (2.4 grams daily) starting at 32 weeks found it didn’t shorten the first stage of labor. It did, however, shorten the pushing stage by about 10 minutes and was associated with fewer forceps or vacuum-assisted deliveries (19.3% versus 30.4% in the control group). No adverse effects were found for mother or baby. Raspberry leaf contains a compound that relaxes uterine muscle, which may explain why it seems to help with the efficiency of contractions rather than their timing.
Movement and Positioning
Staying active in late pregnancy can help your baby drop lower into the pelvis, which puts pressure on the cervix and encourages it to soften and open. You don’t need a formal exercise routine. Walking, climbing stairs, and squatting all use gravity to your advantage.
Stair climbing is particularly useful because the uneven, tilting motion of your hips helps the baby shift and rotate into a better position. If you feel stable enough, taking the stairs two at a time opens the pelvis even wider. Lunges work in a similar way. Holding a lunge position for 30 seconds or so gives the baby more room to descend.
Sitting on an exercise ball with your legs wide and doing hip circles is another go-to. This opens the pelvis and encourages the baby to engage, all while being gentle enough to do while watching TV. Rocking forward and back on the ball (pelvic tilts) has a similar effect. Squatting widens the pelvic opening significantly and can make contractions more effective once labor starts, potentially speeding things up.
Nipple Stimulation
Nipple stimulation triggers the release of oxytocin, the same hormone your body uses to start and sustain labor contractions. It’s the same mechanism that causes contractions during breastfeeding after birth. A pilot study asked women to stimulate their nipples with a breast pump or by hand for at least 30 minutes at a time, with breaks of up to 15 minutes, aiming for a cumulative two hours. This approach is sometimes used in clinical settings as a first step before synthetic oxytocin.
If you try this at home, it’s best to wait until you’re at least 39 weeks and have discussed it with your provider. Overstimulation can cause contractions that are too strong or too close together, so taking breaks matters.
What About Castor Oil?
Castor oil has a long reputation as a folk remedy for starting labor, and many people assume it’s risky. A randomized controlled trial in post-date pregnancies actually found it was both safe and effective for inducing labor, with no differences in labor complications or newborn outcomes compared to the control group. That said, castor oil works by irritating the intestines, which can cause nausea, diarrhea, and cramping. It’s not dangerous, but it’s unpleasant, and starting labor while dehydrated from GI distress isn’t ideal. If you’re considering it, doing so under guidance from your provider and staying well-hydrated makes a significant difference.
How Cervical Readiness Affects Your Timeline
Whether labor starts on its own or is induced, how ready your cervix is plays a huge role in how quickly things progress. Providers assess this with a Bishop score, which looks at five factors: how dilated your cervix is, how thin it’s become (effacement), how soft it feels, its position relative to the birth canal, and how low the baby’s head has dropped.
A score of 8 or higher means your body is already gearing up and labor is likely to begin soon. If induction is on the table, a high Bishop score makes vaginal delivery much more likely and the whole process faster. A low score means your cervix still needs time to soften and thin before contractions can do their job efficiently. Many of the strategies above, like walking, squatting, and eating dates, work in part by helping improve cervical readiness before labor even begins.
Medical Induction at 39 Weeks
If you’re past 39 weeks and ready to be done, elective induction is an option worth discussing with your provider. A major trial called ARRIVE, which enrolled over 6,000 healthy first-time mothers, found that induction at 39 weeks actually lowered the cesarean delivery rate compared to waiting for labor to start on its own (18.6% versus 22.2%). Women in the induction group were also less likely to develop preeclampsia or gestational hypertension, and their babies were less likely to need breathing support in the first few days.
Medical induction typically involves one or more approaches. The cervix may be softened using a small balloon catheter or medication. Membrane stripping, where a provider sweeps a finger along the membranes of the amniotic sac, can sometimes jumpstart labor without a full induction. Synthetic oxytocin given through an IV usually starts contractions within about 30 minutes. In some cases, the provider will break the amniotic sac (your water) with a small tool to move things along.
The method your provider recommends depends largely on your Bishop score. If your cervix is already favorable, you may only need oxytocin or membrane rupture. If it’s not ready yet, cervical ripening comes first, which can add several hours to the process.
What’s Realistic to Expect
No strategy, natural or medical, will compress a 40-week pregnancy into something dramatically shorter. What these approaches can do is shave hours off labor, help your body prepare so things start sooner, and reduce the likelihood of interventions like forceps deliveries or cesarean sections. The women who seem to benefit most are those who combine several of the gentler strategies: staying active, eating dates in the last month, using raspberry leaf, and keeping their body in upright or open-pelvis positions as much as possible.
If you’re past your due date and truly miserable, a conversation about elective induction at 39 to 41 weeks is a reasonable step. The research supports it as safe for first-time mothers, and it puts a definite end point on the waiting.