Evening Primrose oil pills. Do they work? Find out the answer (and all the other ways to induce labor) in our free guide.
Are you approaching nine full months, and want to make sure you have your baby on time, or even a couple days early? Pregnancy is a very special time in many women’s’ lives, but it’s also a challenging one, and when you get close to the end, you probably are more than ready to have that baby, both so that you can go back to normal physically and start enjoying spending some time with your baby.
There are many techniques to induce labor once you reach 39 weeks, and not before. One of the most common is labor inducing pills. These pills are not formulated to work with the natural rhythms of your body though. If you take labor inducing pills too soon and you aren’t ready to give birth, you can risk a severe reaction which will harm both you and your baby. Many women want to find natural ways of inducing labor as a result. Fortunately there are many options available naturally which will only induce labor if you really are prepared to give birth. They will not hurt you or your baby.
One herb which is popular for women trying to induce labor is evening primrose oil. You should consult with a physician before deciding to use any herb to induce pregnancy. These herbs aren’t always appropriate for everyone, though evening primrose oil is safe for most women.
There are several ways you can use primrose oil to induce labor.
You can either take the evening primrose capsules orally, or you can crush them and rub the oil onto your cervix during your final weeks of pregnancy. You can also simply insert the evening primrose tablets into your vagina and wait for them to dissolve. The effect of evening primrose oil is to induce muscle contractions in the cervix, much in the manner of prostaglandins.
Who shouldn’t use evening primrose oil to induce labor?
If you have placenta previa (where the placenta is partially or fully blocking the opening of your cervix), you shouldn’t use evening primrose oil. There may be other conditions which make the use of primrose oil unsafe too, so be sure to ask a health practitioner before you decide to try it.
What can you do if you can’t use evening primrose oil?
Along with many other choices of herbs and foods and activities that you will find out when reading about how to induce labor, you could try acupuncture or acupressure. These are dependable methods for inducing labor that have helped numerous women to give birth within just 48 hours of treatment. Labor after an acupressure or acupuncture treatment usually lasts 4-5 hours. Even women who have been late for weeks often find that this solves their problem. How do acupuncture and acupressure work? These traditional techniques from China kindle the flow of energy in your body, removing obstructions physically, emotionally, and spiritually, which may be inhibiting you from going into labor.
Evening primrose oil, acupressure, and many more methods exist to help you go into labor. You don’t need to resort to dangerous drugs when so many safe, cost effective and reliable solutions are right in front of you.

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I had a emergency C-Section at 33 1/2 weeks 7 years ago…..I don’t want to have another C-Section! My doctor says I will probably be over due for this baby but can’t go over 41 weeks if I do I will have to have a C-Section. So I am wondering if this will work or if this is safe for me to use. Any idea?
Jessica:
I would try other things first before using any type of herbs or anything vaginally and orally. I know that this works but I plan to go to other methods first.
Hi Jessica, I would be careful. I am taking them now, I am 38 weeks, but I have not had any complications with my prior pregnancy or with this pregnancy. You should call and talk to the triage nurse if you forget to ask your doctor. Good luck!!!
The evening primrose say to take 3 capsules 2-3 times daily. should i take that many or once daily?
the bottle says its a 1300 mg capsule is it ok to insert vaginally and it wont harm the baby at all or how does all this work… my dr said there should be jus like a dropper thing to where u can jus do drops of the evening primrose oil and tht i should really take the pill.. well they dnt sell it here so i have the capsules and he said poke a whole in it and let a drop or so go on my tongue is it even effectin me at all… or is he jus tryin to make me feel like im doin somethin but then be able to say oh yea it dnt work see u tried it,, but they were gonna let me take my celexa during pregnancy and they cause cleft palate miscarriage and all sorts of other problems during pregnancy and i have yet to hear something bad about the evening primrose oil… idk wat to do just want everything to go smooth and him come on time if not lil early i only got 21 days to go…
plz help me oout.. im soo confused
I took evening primrose oil w/ my youngest who is now 4. I took 3 orally and inserted 2 at night before bed. I did this 1 day, then on the 2nd day I took 3 orally, and my water broke that night. My dr recommended it to me, and said that you have to be atleast 3 cm dilated and starting to thin out for it to even work. It worked for me and I plan on doing it again w/ my current pregnancy (I’m only 33 weeks though so it’ll be a few weeks before I attempt it, if I don’t go into labor on my own first)
Hey i am only 33 weeks as well and my midwife told me to start inserting one a night at 36 weeks so it will help thin my cervix so she wont have to do another c-section which i dont want..
This is my 2 second pregnancy im 30 wks when should i start this method my husband will be home on r&r in 6 wks would it be ok to do one inserted at night starting at 34wks?? My doctor wont induce me while he is here
Im 33 weeks pregnant and I can’t take it anymore. It’s my third so does this really work? I want to go buy it now
I started this today.. Hopefully it will work.. I am 2days away from 39wks with baby #2..
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