10 Strategies to Possibly Prevent Pre-Term Labor

Polar bear (Photo credit: tjuel)

I had a scare Monday night. My Braxton-Hicks contractions had really revved up over the Weekend and by Monday night, I was having contractions every 6-8 minutes. My lower-back was aching. Both are signs of Pre-Term Labor.

I immediately began drinking tons of water, made myself a Hot Toddy to relax and drew a warm bath. I read this excellent article from Parenting.com and this terrific post on natural ways to stop and prevent Pre-term Labor.

I drank some Nettle Tea and took a dropper full of a Wild Yam Tincture, I had made a few years ago. Things started settling down, so I chose to hold off and call the Midwives first thing in the morning.

When I woke up, I was still having more than 4 contractions every hour, so I wanted to get an internal exam. My Mother-in-law came over to pick up Nye-Nye, while Papa Bear and I headed to see the Midwife on call.

I was 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant, so we decided to do the 36 week exam, which includes several tests. Everything looked great. The baby is head down and is facing my spine (so it's highly unlikely that I will have to deal with any Back Labor).

I am currently 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced, which is totally normal for this stage of the game. I left feeling very, very happy. My kiddo has more than a week to keep on cooking until she is Full-Term.

My Midwife recommended lots of rest (although she said it was more for psychological reasons than to prevent me from going into Labor before 37 weeks).

Over the next week, I plan on using most of these strategies. Who knows if they will help? But, some of these things will definitely help me relax.


1. Lots and lots of baths.

2. Lots and lots of water (at least 12 glasses a day).

3. emergen-C (1,000 mg of vitamin C)

4. Nettle Tea

5. Resting on my left-side

6. Magnesium and Calcium supplements

7. One Hot Toddy per day

8. Resting in Polar Bear Position

9. Listening to Relaxing Music

10. Wild Yam Tincture