Red Seal - Raspberry Leaf Tea
I've read reviews of people saying the taste was horrible. Apart from being expensive, I found that I quite like the taste
Herbs of Gold - Raspberry Leaf capsule
One of my biggest dislikes are taking capsules or tablets for any reason.
Even when I'm sick I refuse taking paracetamol. Eugh...
These capsules were small, round and tasteless making it easier to swallow. I only persisted because of the so-called "pregnancy benefits"
So did the above products help me in any way? I guess nobody can really tell.
I took the capsules diligently (following dosage as per labelled instructions) and drank the tea during the day. My waters broke (whilst celebrating my birthday at a restaurant with family and friends) at 37weeks. After going to hospital for an assessment, the Docs said I needed to be induced. I was induced around about 22:20pm and Isaac was born at 02:47am 37wks day2. No tear, No stitches. So... I'm not sure if the RLT helped with the smooth delivery, or if it was my active pregnancy and labour. Would I do it again? Yes. With all natural ingredients, I believe that there's no harm in doing something that has been done for ages.
For more information on how Raspberry Leaf impacts on pregnancy, labour and breastfeeding, visit Baby Center. Google will also list many other useful links too.
Update: it has been almost 9 years since I’ve written the above post and I thought it was time to update it.
Since the birth of my firstborn, I’ve been blessed with 3 more children. For all 4 pregnancies, I took raspberry leaf tea capsules and drank the teabags - this is despite having quick labour and deliveries each time.
Following a considerable short labour after getting induced with baby #1, I was fortunate to go into labour naturally with baby #2 at 38weeks. It was completely different to my first labour experience and I had gone in with painful contractions and then Jacob was born in a few pushes after my waters broke. It all happened really quickly and to date, (I find) is still my easiest birth. My 3rd birth was again induced by choice as it was the only pregnancy where I went private and I had the choice. I had complications with bleeding throughout which had given me several scares especially as we had miscarried right before this one. Turned out the bleeding was caused by placenta previa so we decided to go via private care to ease our minds. Baby Charlotte blessed us around 38 weeks too and it was a planned induction as we needed to have the boys in care so we didn’t have to worry about who to mind the kids. It might be age, but I was nervous about giving birth. Nonetheless, I still wanted to do it drug free in the same style as my previous deliveries.
After having baby #3, we knew we would definitely plan for baby #4. We’ve been so blessed to be able to fall pregnant smoothly the moment we plan to and go on to have quick labours. Hannah was born during covid times and she came naturally at 40 weeks. It was so quick that I had to drive myself to hospital, breathing through the contractions and carrying all my hospital bags. In hindsight, I could’ve waited for my husband to get back from work, however the contractions came so quickly I couldn’t take the risk of having the baby at home as I was GBS+ for this pregnancy. Baby was only out in a few pushes and luckily daddy managed to make it in time to witness it.
As much as I’d love more kids, we’re finding it challenging to dedicate quality time to each child so (we think) we’re calling at 4.
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