How does clary sage oil induce labour

The online survey was open to midwives, students, doulas, other birth attendants and mothers who had experienced or observed Clary sage use in childbirth. Many thanks to all those who took part in it. Results from 28 respondents: Thirteen had used Clary sage as a midwife, doula or birth helper, 9 women had used it on themselves, 6 had both used it on themselves and others. Contractions effect: sixteen stated onset of contractions had occurred following the use of Clary sage. Over three quarters of those surveyed believed that clary sage had made contractions stronger and more frequent.

Interestingly, no one saw or experienced an increase in pain with the use of Clary sage, despite the increased perception in strength of contractions. Experiences were shared of Clary sage use aiding women into active labour after long latent stages following massage or bathing with the essential oil.

Other respondents had found Clary sage aided transition and second stage of labour. Overall how much do you think clary sage helps women and labour? Thoughts on how clary sage can help labour and why it is thought to work: Comments offered include the following thoughts and advice:.

Methods of use: 18 smelled clary sage directly from bottle, gauze, tissue, scent stick, cloth etc. Application by tapers were found to be useful as they could be removed if the effect was too strong. Another found it helped to increase the strength and frequency of contractions every time. One report of indirect use via a burner was not found to be helpful.

Contraindications : considering the scarcity of research indicating the benefits or potential harms of using Clary sage in aromatherapy for childbirth, there is a surprising abundance of proposed contraindications to its use identified by this small survey.

Clary sage influence on others beside the birthing mother. Uterine contraction was expected to be induced in accordance with the increase in the oxytocin level.

However, postinhalation subjective and objective UCs were not observed in the experiment group. Regarding oxytocin receptors, their amount increases around the onset of labor [ 39 ] and their polymorphism is related the duration of labor and delivery [ 40 ].

Therefore, UC is affected by the oxytocin level as well as the amount and polymorphism of oxytocin receptors. Another possibility is that the increase in the oxytocin level might be small to cause UCs. Clary sage essential oil contains sclareol and is expected to have estrogen-like effects because sclareol has a structure similar to estrogen [ 41 ].

As estrogen enhances the release of oxytocin [ 34 ], it can be expected that a greater absorption of sclareol into the body would mean a larger increase in the oxytocin level. The present study used inhalation as an absorption route of the essential oil into the body, although skin absorption is also used in aromatherapy. In future studies, administration methods that facilitate the simultaneous skin and inhalation absorption of essential oils such as using a footbath should be adopted for cumulative effects on oxytocin release.

In all the samples with 1. Notably, The oxytocin level measurement can be further improved by collecting a minimum amount of 1. Moreover, the To obtain adequate saliva volumes, any stimuli that promote salivation consistently at each saliva collection may serve as a solution [ 14 , 42 ].

Notably, studies indicating the required saliva volumes and deficiencies in the appropriate saliva volume for oxytocin level measurement remain scarce. Recently, the number of studies on oxytocin has been increasing, and novel findings can also be useful for other oxytocin studies.

The cortisol level showed a decreasing trend during the inhalation intervention in both groups, indicating the absence of intervention-induced stress. The intervention protocol had no negative effects. The intervention protocol was within the acceptance level of the participants. Although 3 of 5 women judged the scent as weak, the oxytocin level increased postinhalation. In future studies, the same strength or a stronger scent can be considered. This feasibility pilot study showed that inhalation of the scent of clary sage essential oil induced an increasing trend in the oxytocin level, but had no effect on UC.

The intervention protocol showed good acceptability. In terms of practicality, it can be further adjusted to enable the collection of a sufficient amount of saliva for optimal measurement of the oxytocin level. The limited efficacy of the inhalation could not be clearly confirmed owing to some missing oxytocin values. The method of oxytocin measurement did not include an extraction step, which has bearing on the reliability of the measurements. Future studies should consider the inclusion of an extraction step.

The experiment group could easily guess the presence of the scent of clary sage essential oil which they liked. Thus, an increase in the oxytocin level from the perception of any preferred scent is possible. YT and SH designed the study, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript.

YT conducted the experiments and collected the data. TS analyzed the oxytocin receptor polymorphisms. ES and KS arranged the measurements of the salivary oxytocin and cortisol levels. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. We are grateful to all the participants, the staff at the data collection setting, and Ms. Kanae Kitagawa aromatherapist and aromatherapy instructor for their professional assistance and advice.

We are indebted to Dr. Edward F. All participants provided written informed consent to publish this study. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of St. The participants provided written informed consent to participate in the study. These funding sources were not involved in the design, intervention, data collection and analysis, and publication of this study.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Electronic supplementary material. Yuriko Tadokoro, Email: pj. Shigeko Horiuchi, Email: pj. Kaori Takahata, Email: pj. Takuya Shuo, Email: pj. Erika Sawano, Email: pj. Kazuyuki Shinohara, Email: pj. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.

BMC Res Notes. Published online Dec 8. Yuriko Tadokoro 1 St. Kaori Takahata 1 St. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer.

Corresponding author. Received Sep 4; Accepted Nov This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Associated Data Supplementary Materials Additional file 1. Details of the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the participants and requests to the participants to avoid any possible disturbance of the oxytocin and cortisol measurement by enzyme immunosorbent assay until the intervention. Additional file 2.

Inhalation intervention. Details of inhalation intervention. Additional file 3. Questionnaires and oral questions. Preinhalation and postinhalation questionnaires and postinhalation oral questions translated from Japanese to English.

Additional file 4. Flow chart of the participants from recruitment to analysis of outcomes. Abstract Objectives This pilot study using a quasi-experimental design was conducted to evaluate the feasibility i. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article Keywords: Pregnant women, Induction of labor, Complementary and alternative medicine, Aromatherapy, Clary sage essential oil, Inhalation, Salivary oxytocin, Uterine contraction, Salivary cortisol, Feasibility study.

Introduction Medical induction of labor has been widely used [ 1 — 3 ]. Main text Methods This research was a feasibility pilot study conducted using a quasi-experimental design with two arms: experiment group and control group.

Participants and setting The inclusion criteria included low-risk pregnant women between 38 and 40 gestation weeks before labor onset for planning spontaneous delivery. Intervention The inhalation intervention for each participant was started at Outcome measures For the primary objective, salivary oxytocin level was measured at four time points: 10 min preinhalation baseline , and 15, 30, and 60 min postinhalation [ 17 — 21 ].

Data analysis Outcomes were descriptively analyzed. Results Eleven women received the intervention: 5 E1—5 in the experiment group and 6 C1—6 in the control group. Table 1 Basic characteristics of participants. Open in a separate window. Oxytocin receptor single nucleotide polymorphism was assayed using buccal mucosa samples collected after completing all saliva collections TaqMan SNP genotyping assays, Applied Biosystems, Thermo Fisher, MA, USA The characteristics reportedly related to a lower oxytocin level were oxytocin receptor polymorphism GG in rs and rs, and TT in rs [ 31 — 33 ]; having depression [ 29 , 30 , 32 ], anxiety [ 33 ], a high body mass index and no children, and being married [ 34 ].

Primary outcomes: limited efficacy The oxytocin level could be measured at all the measurement points in 3 women in the experiment group Fig. Secondary outcomes: practicality For saliva collection, 3 of the 11 women Secondary outcomes: acceptability All the burdens of the intervention were judged as moderate or light in both groups.

Discussion Limited efficacy: oxytocin level and uterine contraction Inhalation of the scent of clary sage essential oil induced an increasing trend in the oxytocin level at 15 min postinhalation which was measured during the inhalation. Practicality: saliva collection ability, cortisol level, and negative effects In all the samples with 1. However, if you go into labour and your attending midwife uses aromatherapy, you may well be given with your permission clary sage essential oil and other essential oils for free.

Dr Philippa has also written a number of books, including ones on child health , diabetes in childhood and adolescence. She is a mum of 3. Changes in salivary oxytocin after inhalation of clary sage essential oil scent in term-pregnant women.

Takodoro, Y et al.