ST. LOUIS — Today in St. Louis co-anchor Allie Corey is 9 months pregnant and her due date is on Saturday.
To make sure she has an easy quick delivery, the KSDK staff gathered all the most talked about labor inducing foods. Here’s what we found based off medical professionals from UTSouthwestern Medical Center:
Spicy food
- Spicy foods work similar to castor oil in that it can upset the gastrointestinal tract which can result in contractions. However, it rarely results in true labor.
- The Eviction Notice Pasta Special at Frank Papa’s in St. Louis is known to bring on the spices to kick a pregnant woman into labor. The restaurant claims around 40 women a week visit the restaurant for this special dish.
Castor Oil
- Castor oil is a laxative that can lead to contractions but as a result of diarrhea and upsetting your gastrointestinal tract.
- There are famous salads like the “Maternity Salad” at Caioti Pizza Café in Studio City, California that add castor oil to its dressing in hopes of inducing labor. Hundreds of woman will preach that this salad is what pushed them into labor.
Pineapples/Lemons
- Fresh pineapple and/or lemon juices can break down the proteins in tissue. The popular belief is that it can also soften the cervix to stimulate labor. A study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found evidence that pineapple juice can induce uterotonic activity, but nothing that would result in labor.
- Cappellion’s Crazy Cakes cupcake shop in Charlottesville, Virginia claims to have sent at least 150 moms into labor by selling them its famous “lemon drop cupcake." The ingredients for the cupcake include lots of fresh lemon juice.
Licorice
- Black licorice is thought to stimulate the production of prostaglandins which results in intestinal contractions which may lead to uterine contractions. In a report published in 2002 by the American Journal of Epidemiology, Finnish researcher Timo E. Strandberg found that babies born to mothers who ate tons of licorice were born an average of two and a half days earlier than those born to mothers who did not eat licorice.