# Can nipple stimulation cause premature labor?



## baybemama (Jan 15, 2007)

I was thinking today about nipple stimulation during sex...can it induce labor if your body isn't really ready? I'm 31 weeks and wondering if dh should lay off the nips and if I should stop my periodic squeezing to see if anything comes out


----------



## khaoskat (May 11, 2006)

It is considered a natural labor inducer....but I think the only time they are concerned early on is if you are using a double breast pump to stimulate your nipples.

I have nursed through 2 full term pregnancies; 1 miscarriage; and just onto my 4th pregnancy of nursing. One of my pregnancies was even tandem nursing through to the 7th month, when DS1 self weaned due to the change over to colostrum.


----------



## risen_joy (Jan 22, 2006)

The basic "rule" is that baby will come when baby is ready.







I tried every old wives tale in the book to start labor but it didn't happen until it was time! I wouldn't worry.


----------



## trmpetplaya (May 30, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *risen_joy* 
The basic "rule" is that baby will come when baby is ready.







I tried every old wives tale in the book to start labor but it didn't happen until it was time! I wouldn't worry.









: Pretty much what I was going to say (minus the personal experience of trying to start labor, but I've heard many similar tales).

love and peace.


----------



## JanB (Mar 4, 2004)

Well, I would amend that to say that baby will come when baby is ready unless you use certain labor induction methods. Granted, not every woman will respond to natural induction methods, but IMHO some will. I was told by an uninformed OB with my first pregnancy that she would be inducing me at 39 weeks for gestational diabetes, and out of fear of a medical induction, I tried natural induction methods, including nipple stimulation with a breast pump. The day after I used the breast pump, my water broke. I was 38.5 weeks, my labor hadn't really started, and my son turned out to be occipital transverse which necessitated a C-section. He had signs of prematurity when he was born. Personally, I think that my water broke prematurely and that my son arrived too early, and I think that the "natural induction methods" were a contributing factor.

That having been said, I do agree that the nipple stimulation I used was double-pumping with an electric breast pump, 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off for two hours. I don't think that the stimulation you get during sex would really do much of anything.


----------



## AKSharon (Nov 20, 2013)

I would say yes. I was pregnant, stimulated my nipples for about an hour at best and my placenta ruptured. I was lucky we both survived. Do Not Risk Nipple Stimulation to induce pregnacy! listen to the old wives. We know what we are talking about!


----------



## BethaniaDawn (Oct 13, 2013)

Continuous nipple stimulation can cause contractions but you don't have to worry about it in sex. It takes serious stimulation (20 min on 20 min off for a long time), way more than your DH is going to be interested in 

You don't have to use the breast pump to cause the contractions though. When I was wanting to go into labor with my third, I was able to cause contractions from stimulating in the shower but the contractions would taper off when I stopped massaging them.

AKSharon - WOW on the placental abruption. That would be so scary. The contractions with nipple stimulation are not any harder than those caused by any other self induction method and are considerably less than contractions during actual active labor or those caused by medical induction. I have never heard any old wives tales saying not to use nipple stimulation to induce. It seems a lot less dangerous than most other methods.


----------



## jhmountainmama (Jul 29, 2011)

With baby 2 I was desperate to start labor and tried every method I could. I did get some contractions from nipple stimulation, but they stopped when I stopped. Sex seemed to bring on the longest and hardest contractions, but I still didn't go into labor because of it, just duped myself out of some much needed sleep....because of the contractions, not the sex. lol.


----------

