It's a Date!

The humble Medjool date it seems may just have some hidden superpowers!

A study conducted in 2011 and published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has some really interesting results from comparing two groups of women: those who consumed six dates per day in the last four weeks of labour and those who did not.

Here are a few interesting results from the study:

- Spontaneous labour occurred in 96% of those who consumed dates, compared with 79% women in the non-date consumers.

- Use of prostin/oxytocin was significantly lower in women who consumed dates (28%), compared with the non-date consumers (47%).

- The mean latent phase of the first stage of labour was shorter in women who consumed dates compared with the non-date consumers. (Those who consumed dates had an average 8.5 hours of first stage labor while those who didn’t had an average 15.1 hours of first stage labor.)

- The women who consumed dates had significantly higher mean cervical dilatation upon admission compared with the non-date consumers.

The study concluded that the consumption of dates in the last 4 weeks before labour, significantly reduced the need for induction and augmentation of labour, and produced a more favorable, delivery outcome.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21280989

The effect of late pregnancy consumption of date fruit on labour and delivery. - PubMed - NCBI

J Obstet Gynaecol. 2011;31(1):29-31. doi: 10.3109/01443615.2010.522267.

NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV|BY AL-KURAN O , ET AL.