The Power of Dates
Average read time: 5 minutes
There are many pieces of advice about how to prep for labor in the final weeks of pregnancy.
Spicy foods will get labor started!
Start scrubbing the floors - the motion will help your baby drop down into your pelvis!
Eat six dates a day! They will help prepare your body for labor!
Well, I’m here to hype up that last one!
As an Arab-American woman, I love dates. I eat 4-6 dates daily - they are my little sweet treat after a meal! I eat them plain, out of a special little mug that I use to make my dates feel ritualistic and special. I don’t eat them for any particular health-related reason, this is just a little joy of mine.
As a birthworker, I also love dates! While dates aren’t ever going to be the *thing* that naturally induces your body into labor, they do have health benefits, especially for your cervix and the length of your labor!
Dates are generally a great source of vitamins and minerals. According to the Cleveland Clinic, eating roughly 4 dates adds the following to your daily source of:
Copper (40% DV)
Magnesium (15% DV)
Manganese (14% DV)
Potassium (23% DV)
Vitamin B6 (17% DV)
Those 4 dates also include 7 grams of fiber (for context, psyllium husk - a natural fiber supplement - has 4 grams of fiber per serving. And that’s something that you take specifically to get more fiber!)
Now let’s add in the element of pregnancy and preparing for labor. According to a meta-analysis (this is just a fancy way to say that researchers read through many different studies to find overarching conclusions) on the consumption of dates, researchers found that consuming dates in the final weeks of pregnancy and in labor:
Increases dilation of the cervix at entry to the hospital (meaning you enter the hospital more fully dilated!)
Shortens the length of the first and second stages of labor (in a nutshell: the first stage - contractions and opening of cervix, the second stage - pushing and delivery of baby!)
These benefits are pretty significant! Lowering the amount of time you’re in labor? Great! Helping your cervix open up? Amazing!
The one devastating thing I hear from clients about dates is…. That they just don’t like to eat them. My heart barely holds on to reality in that moment, as I struggle to connect to the family I’ve been hired to support. Just kidding, that’s quite dramatic. But I do then have to reach into my doula toolkit and bust out some other ways for my clients to get dates into their daily diets! Here are some suggestions I’ve gathered:
Add them to a smoothie! This helps especially if you don’t like the texture of dates.
Chop them up small and add them to muffins! My absolute favorite muffin recipe is here - I’ve added dates and they are delish!
Heng Ou is an amazing birthworker who specialized in using food as a tool for strength and healing. Her cookbook, Awakening Fertility, has a great recipe for date balls. I’ve made them for friends and family - pregnant folks, TTC homies, and just lovers of food - who all raved about their poppability.
Make girl-scout cookie inspired, three-ingredient samoas! Shout out to a client of mine, who whipped these out at a prenatal we had. I could barely stop myself from asking for seconds! Recipe is below.
I love food, and really enjoy talking with my clients about how they are getting creative with their eating during their pregnancy. Please know that I am not a medical professional, nor do I have any formal dietary training. I just like hearing what people eat and spreading yummy recipes far and wide! Want to connect? Send me an email here and let me know any great date recipes you’ve tried!
Recipe: Samoa-Inspired Date/Coconut Bites
Take about 10 dates and pit them. Add them to a cup of unsweetened shredded coconut in a food processor and blend until they make a paste. Portion the paste into balls the size of your palm, and flatten them so they are about the size and shape of a samoa (see the girl scout website here). Put these flattened spheres into the freezer for about 10 minutes, and while they harden, melt dark chocolate mixed with a tiny amount of coconut oil. Once cookies are frozen, take them and dip the bottoms in the chocolate mixture! Drizzle any remaining chocolate over the tops! Once chocolate is on, put the cookies back into the freezer for about 30 minutes. Store them in the fridge after that, and enjoy!
Resources and Citations:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/benefits-of-dates
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S096522991930456X
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6695006/
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/ebb-128-inducing-labor-with-castor-oil-and-dates/
