Does the Maternity Salad really work to induce labor?
Have you heard of the Maternity Salad- the infamous salad at Caioti Pizza Cafe in Los Angeles that has a reputation for inducing labor? If you read around the internet you will see that many believe the “secret ingredient” must include castor oil. Who knows for sure?? Gloria Juarez, CEO & partner at Caioti Pizza Cafe, says The Salad has been a part of Los Angles legend for decades. Juarez says it all started,
"Over 30 years ago, a group of ladies came in. They all had similar due dates. They all had the salad and went into labor. Since then, we get from 15 to 30 females a day to have the salad to go into labor."
It sounds amazing right? Just have The Salad, made with romaine, watercress, walnuts, and gorgonzola cheese, a “secret” dressing and like magic you’ll have your baby the next day! It sounds so simple! We should say we’ve had hundreds of people through the years try the Maternity Salad near their due date, and most of them did NOT go into labor soon after! But the few who did are the ones you’re most likely to hear about.
Statistically speaking, the people eagerly eating that Maternity Salad on their due dates have a 60% chance of going into spontaneous labor that week whether they eat the salad or not. You can imagine how easy it is to find correlations between unrelated situations when you’re desperate to give birth.
In reality, if the Maternity Salad worked that well, we’d be the first ones recommending it! As holistic doulas, we love low-risk natural induction techniques.
Natural labor induction methods you might be considering.
The vast majority of our clients reach out to us as their due date approaches wanting to know what else they should add to the list of things they’re doing to try to get their baby to come sooner rather than later.
By their due date they’re eating The Salad, using evening primrose oil, getting their membranes swept, going to acupuncture and a chiropractor, curb walking, rolling on their birth ball for hours, having sex, eating dates, drinking six cups of Raspberry Leaf tea a day and wondering our thoughts about castor oil. “Is there anything else??”, they inevitably ask us. And they never like our answer.
First, I want to acknowledge that we have so much compassion for the anxiety our clients so often feel in their last few weeks of pregnancy. These days, it’s actually unusual for our clients to not have to face last minute recommendations to induce based on such things as amniotic fluid levels or the size of their baby. It makes sense, then, that those families who were really hoping NOT to induce would turn to a quick google search where they’d find endless success stories about what other people have done to get the ball rolling. A lot of you would eat any amount of salad to have the birth you’re envisioning, and we get it.
“I just want to do what’s best for my baby,” a recent client kept saying through tears while trying to sort out how to proceed with recommendations to induce based on her baby’s estimated size. “I just really hope she comes on her own before next week,” she said. A totally rational thing to hope for– the perfect solution. But, unfortunately, not a solution anyone can control.
All of the birthworkers in Los Angeles that we know share our opinion that the more you try to control the timing of labor the less successful you will be. That’s because the hormones that kickstart the labor process are the same hormones that help you fall asleep at night, and there is nothing that makes it harder to fall asleep than being in a hurry to do so.
We like to think of the timing of labor as something you cannot control, but as something that must be beckoned.
The state-of-mind that labor finds most enticing are the states that boost oxytocin and melatonin. Feelings of gratitude, connection, peace, and trust require the opposite energy (and hormones) of stress, anxiety and the desire to control. When I recommend our clients do some freewriting or journaling at the end of their pregnancy, (yes I am aware this is what a caricature of a crunchy Los Angeles birth doula that is), I truly believe it can help! Getting our thoughts and emotions down on paper can shift the energy of feeling-like-a-watched-pot more than all the curb walking, spicy foods and salads combined!
This isn’t to suggest that there is nothing that may nudge labor along once the body has already begun to prepare.
There are a few things that can make a big difference. In order of importance, they are:
Alignment
If the ligaments that run through the pelvis are balanced (Spinning Babies and/or a good Los Angeles Pregnancy Chiropractor) and the baby’s butt is in the hammock of the belly towards the left, the chances of the baby’s head being able to put a good amount of pressure on the cervix dramatically increases. We know that pressure on the cervix goes a long way to nudging labor along and promoting readiness! Addressing the baby’s position is something that will support natural induction techniques.
Cervical Ripening
A cervix can’t dilate before it has softened and thinned out, and there is some solid evidence to support vaginal evening primrose capsules, eating dates, and sex to help increase cervical ripening. If you would like to learn more about data behind these natural induction methods, Rebecca Dekker and her research team at Evidence Based Birth has lots of information to read.
Emotional Readiness
Sitting with the question “Is there something I need to express before I’m ready to surrender to this birth,” can be a good place to start. Some people find they are grieving their old life, or their relationship to their partner. Some people may feel trepidation about sitting at this threshold of transformation. Investigating lingering emotions and fears often gets tears flowing, and many of our pregnant clients have found this process to be helpful.
Our thoughts on the most popular holistic labor interventions:
YES:
Spinning Babies/ The Miles Circuit
Evening Primrose suppositories
Eating Dates
Semen
Orgasms
Red Raspberry Leaf Tea (4-6 cups a day)
Nipple Stimulation/Colostrum Harvesting
Acupuncture
Chiropractic Care
NOs:
Oral Evening Primrose Oil
The Maternity Salad (unless you just want the salad as a Rite of Passage or for lunch! or try this Maternity Salad)
Curb walking if baby’s butt is not towards the front left
Birth ball circles if baby’s butt is not towards the front left
Castor Oil without consultation
Herbs without the supervision of a qualified herbalist
Membrane Sweep without informed consent (can cause “irritable uterus or Premature Rupture of Membranes/the water breaking)
So, our advice is to go ahead and eat the Los Angeles Maternity Salad because it tastes good! It’s not going to put you into labor unless you were already on the brink. Eat dates because they’re delicious. Have orgasms if it sounds relaxing and pleasurable. But whatever you do to try to beckon labor, remind yourself that relaxation and connection and safety are a lot more productive than checking off boxes and hyper-fixating on your cervix. Let go!
Trust your body. And honor your last days of this pregnancy.
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