Dates are basically tropical fruit that is grown on date palm trees. It’s scientifically known as Phoenix Dactylifera and is one of the healthiest fruits around the world. Coming under the dry fruit category, dates are highly nutritious and extremely tasty. Dates also play an important role in the cultural heritage of many Middle East nations.
Pregnant women who eat dates regularly have a higher chance of delivering by natural labour. In our modern times, the frequency of natural labour is going down by a great margin. The complications that arise out of cesarean deliveries are troubling a lot of young mothers in our generation. Eating dates at the later stages of pregnancy can help in making the entire process of delivery much smoother.
There are results from studies that show that using dates as a part of the regular diet of a pregnant woman can help in reducing the pressure that is applied while trying to deliver the baby. The study also showed that when women who had consumed at least 70 -76 grams of dates during the later stages of pregnancy had to spend around 4 lesser hours during labour compared to women who did not eat dates.
These effects appear due to the unique compounds present in dates that have the ability to reduce the need for oxytocin during pregnancy. These compounds successfully mimic the effects of oxytocin by binding to the receptors and bring around a chance to have healthy contractions during labour. Dates also have a high concentration of tannins which also helps in facilitating contractions during labour. The nutritional value of dates will also help during labour as the mother will have enough natural sugars that can provide energy during pregnancy.
Source: medlife.com
