# Nipple Stimulation to Induce.. Failure/Success



## Sunflower223

Just out of curiosity has anyone ever tried nipple stimulation to induce labor or move along a stalled labor and had it fail? Has anyone used nipple stimulation and had it work? Explain your situation if you dont mind (ie, how far along you were, what went wrong/right, if it was used for induction purposes or just to move along a slow labor, technique used, etc)


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## AugustLia23

Tried it at 39-40 weeks both before and after I went into labor, didn't work for me either time.


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## kristenyostdc

I tried manual stimulation with my 3rd child and it worked for me! I decided to try it thinking that it wouldn't work. I only did it for a couple of minutes and the contractions started right away and didn't stop! I guess your body has to be ready to start labor though. And I guess mine was. I tried it with my 2nd child and it didn't work.


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## Jilian

I tried manual stimulation at a little before 39 weeks with DS, it took a few days to work. I wasn't persistant with it, but I tried it for about 3 days straight before it worked. It gave me some cramping for a few hours at the least.


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## Mama K

I used my breast pump at 40w1d to stimulate 15 minutes one side, then 15 minutes other side, then rest 15 minutes. Then repeat x1.

The next morning I lost my mucous plug and had sporadic, irregular, mild contractions. At around noon that day, I pumped both sides simultaneously for less than 20 minutes and had a few good contractions so I stopped pumping. Contractions became regular starting around 1:45. I was in active labor by evening, and baby was born at 10:42 that evening.


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## XanaduMama

After my water broke but no cx's, and feeling like I was "on the clock" bc of GBS+, I tried nipple stimulation along with walking/yoga etc to get things moving. It didn't help at all, but I think now that I was doing it wrong-- it has to be more like expressing milk than just playing with nipples, and you apparently have to do it for up to 30 minutes at a time, not just on and off. I suspect using a breast pump would be much more effective, though doing manual stimulation properly would probably also be better than the way I did it.


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## kittywitty

It has never worked for me and my three children. The last two had to be medically induced.


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## Meg_s

I'm 38.5 weeks, my 19 month old is boob crazy right now.. I get crampy while or after he nurses, some of these sessions are very long... but nothing productive happens.


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## ColinsMommy

I didn't vote because I'm going to start trying this method. I'm 40+4 right now and the only good contractions I ever get are during my toddler's marathon morning nursing session. They always go away after he's done.









I'm going to start using the breast pump tonight to see if I can get things going. I'll let you know if it works!


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## MtnCanary

After my water broke, I had no contractions. After 9 hours, I used a double-sided breast pump for 10 minutes, followed by rapid walking for 10 minutes, and repeated this 3 times. I had strong contractions for about an hour, then they went away. So I tried again about 7 hours later. Contractions started for me, and ds was born 6 hours later. My MW says that it commonly doesn't work the first time.

Kristin
mom to dd (5 1/2), ds (almost 3!) and #3 due in June


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## Brees_Mama

didnt work for me







dd was 4 days late and NOTHING helped,







but that was her just being her....shes a stubborn little thing, lol.


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## MandyB

I tried manual nipple stimulation with both of my prior pregnancies when I already knew I was dilated to 3-4 cm, but hadn't started labor. It would give me some nice contractions, but never anything that lasted WHEN I was doing this. In both cases, my babes came within three days of it, but probably would have even without it!


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## ledzepplon

I voted "other." My dd was still nursing, and toward the end of pregnancy, she could set off some Braxton-Hicks, but her nursing didn't get any "real" labor cntxs going. (And I tried, because the day before my son was born I kept starting/stopping early labor contractions.)


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## HeatherB

I also voted "other." With my first DS I was on the hospital clock. We asked for natural stim before artificial stim, and they recommended nipple stim. Unfortunately no one gave clear direction on HOW to do it, nor offered a pump. I was already in labor AND contracting quite regularly and quite hard, but not *quite* dilated fully.







: Anyhow... I don't think there's any way we did it right, though I did think it got more painful. And we were interrupted by the nurse who kept wanting to check on hearttones (and managed to cause PAIN while doing so?!). Having seen a discussion of how to properly do manual stim, I think that would've been much more effective.


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## artgoddess

you're supposed to use your *hands*?!


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## Sunflower223

Thanks everyone for your help. Nipple stim seemed pretty promising as a means to induce/ help a stalled labor,its mentioned so often and in so many different sources, but I wanted to get a more adequate view of how successful it is. I was hoping that it had worked for almost everyone who tried, I see now that it is probably not all that much more successful than anything else to start labor. I used it with dd to stimulate labor but it was after having my membranes stripped and I was 2 cm dialated so I am not sure how much the nipple stim did at all.

If anyone else has had an experience with this I would still love to hear from you. I wanted to have something in mind to help with stalled labor and also I was hoping to maybe use it to move things along in the near future. I really want dh to be home when I have the baby and there is only a limited window of opp for that, otherwise I will pretty much be alone. I have no friends here and my mom is recovering from a bad wreck. I don't even know who is going to babysit for me at this point.







:

anyway keep posting!


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## DoomaYula

I got on a PIS about 8h after my water broke with my last birth. I went from zero to like REALLY PAINFUL ctx within about 30 min. It was a mistake -- I had no time to ease into them, ya know? I wouldn't do it again.


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