You may be surprised to know that inducing labor occurs more often than you might think. If it's considered a risk for the woman to stay in this state rather than giving the delivery a jump start then taking steps to induce labor makes all the sense in the world. Inducing labor is when the birth process is given an artificial start through the use of drugs, or other methods such as maternity acupressure.

There are several drugs used to start labor. One of the more common choices is a synthetic version of oxytocin — a hormone your body produces anyway throughout pregnancy, and which accelerates during the actual labor. The things you want to remember here though is, that these are powerful, and many times, drugs with unknown side effects. That coupled with the fact that anything you put into your system is passed along to your unborn child, it's worth taking a moment to think about.

Prostaglandin gel is another medication used to induce labor, and it also has many of the same concerns that oxytocin does. It can cause hard uterine contractions, so stressful that that can be harmful on both you and the baby. The technique known as maternity acupressure does away with these concerns. Give it some thought if you're seeking a safe, less high-end way to bring your little one into the world.