The evidence on Red Raspberry leaf
I like any mummas to be guzzled litres of this bitter tasting tea in the last few weeks of my pregnancy in hopes that it would make the birthing process easier and smoother. looking at the evidence now I think I should have left it and drank something I enjoyed instead.....
Let's dive into talking about the use of red raspberry leaf tea .
Misnomers
Beleifs about raspberry leaf is that it is thought to be effective when taken at the end of pregnancy to make you go into labor sooner or to ripen your cervix.
What does the research say?
Through looking at the best quality articles I have found three reviews of the literature and basically in these reviews they found that red raspberry leaf has been used for a long time. Some reports said that it has been used since the sixth century as a medicine. The reviewers basically all concluded that any evidence on red raspberry leaf is very weak and we really don’t understand if it works, or, if it did work how it would work. They also say that more research is necessary before red raspberry leaf should be recommended by health care providers.
So where did this recommendation come from?
There was one study done a really long time ago in 1941 where they tested red raspberry leaf extract on tissue from uterus's from cats, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs. And they found that if the uterus tissue was contracted already, the addition of the extract made the uterus relax. However, if the uterus tissue was relaxed and they exposed it to red raspberry leaf, they were able to make the uterus contract. Basically they found that toned muscle was relaxed by red raspberry leaf while relaxed muscles were contracted.
In summary
So, in summary, there’s very little research on the human consumption of raspberry leaf during pregnancy. There were no adverse outcomes found in the two studies where they gave raspberry leaf to humans.
Did you take/drink red raspberry leaf in your pregnancy?how did you find it?
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