Fact or fiction: 25 bizarre tips for inducing labor

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Pregnancy eliminates social norms. Complete strangers have no problem approaching an expectant mother to make unsolicited suggestions or ask personal questions. As soon as my wife’s baby bump was visible, it rang the dinner bell for intrusive people.

First there was the sales representative at the mall kiosk continually rubbed my wife’s belly while trying to sell her a bottle of Dead Sea hand scrub. Then there was the acquaintance who looked at her belly and said, “You’re only 30 weeks?” And in the most bizarre encounter, a lady approached her at Walmart and offered to come to our home to deliver the baby (she said her rates were reasonable and she was way more trustworthy than our doctor).

Not all the attention is unwanted. My wife and I enjoy hearing personal anecdotes and find many of the stories and suggestions fascinating. These include folk traditions for predicting the baby’s gender or for inducing labor. We learned there are hundreds of different labor-inducing strategies, and most people have a favorite. The most common tip we heard was to eat the garlic chicken pizza at Cafe Trio.

Intrigued by these folk remedies, I began collecting them as more and more people made suggestions. I’ve compiled the following list of 25 of my favorites. The list is by no means comprehensive, nor is it intended to be taken as medical advice. In fact, doctors would probably frown on several of these methods.

Eat the garlic chicken pizza from Cafe Trio
Eat a pork sandwich from Famous Dave’s
Jump on the trampoline
Get acupuncture
Mow the lawn
Drink raspberry leaf tea
Go bowling
Go for a run
Drive to a higher elevation
Listen to the soundtrack of “Inception”
Eat spicy Indian food
Drink castor oil
Drive over speed bumps
Go to a playground and swing as high as you can
Walk with one foot on the curb, one off
Eat fresh pineapple
Drink cod liver oil
Eat eggplant
Try reflexology
Run up the stairs two at a time
Blow up a dozen balloons
Watch a feel-good movie
Gallop around like a horse
Put clary sage oil on your ankles
Climb up a hill

So what did I leave off the list? What’s your best labor-inducing tip? What's the strangest suggestion you've ever heard? Feel free to share on the comment board.

Grant Olsen joined the KSL.com team in 2012. He covers outdoor adventures, travel, product reviews and other interesting things. You can contact him at grantorrin@gmail.com.