I drank the ‘Starbucks pregnancy drink’ to speed up my stalled labor
These mommies-to-be are spilling hot “pregnancy drink” tea.
With bellies full of delayed babies and hearts set on evicting the little ones out of their wombs as soon as possible, expectant moms are rushing to Starbucks for a tea rumored to induce labor.
“When you’re 39 weeks [and] four days with no signs of labor so you get the Starbucks ‘Pregnancy Drink’ and hope for the best,” penned mom of four Mika Laidler, 35, in the captions of her trending TikTok testimonial.
In the clip, the then-hugely pregnant brunette from California is seen guzzling the famed cafe’s venti passion tea lemonade with four pumps of raspberry syrup.
The concoction, now unofficially known as the #StarbucksPregnancyDrink — a hashtag that has lapped up over 6.7 million TikTok views — has achieved viral acclaim amongst anxious mamas who hope the red refresher will jumpstart the birthing process.
And while most full-term babies typically make their world premieres at 40 weeks, some pregnancy-exhausted women like Laidler are willing to eat, drink or do whatever it takes to kick the kid out a few days ahead of their due dates.
However, the “Starbucks pregnancy tea” wasn’t the first viral remedy for stalled labor.
In 2017, carrying cuties flocked to Hawthorne’s New York Pizza & Bar in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the hut’s heralded Buffalo wing pizza, more popularly know as “the inducer” — a gooey pie slathered in mozzarella cheese, Buffalo sauce and chicken — hoping the spicy snack would speed up their labor. Two years later, a Minnesota-based burger joint welcomed “an influx of pregnant women,” who were all seeking its “labor inducer” burger, which came complete with an Angus beef patty, honey-cured bacon, peach caramelized onions, spicy mustard and Cajun remoulade on a pretzel bun.
Although there’s little science that proves downing peppery bites or gulping fruity beverages actually makes baby come faster, virtual pregnancy hub WhatToExpect.com does list spicy foods, balsamic vinegar, dates and raspberry leaf tea as items “commonly thought” to induce labor.
“Red raspberry leaf tea has been said to boost blood flow to the uterus and thereby trigger contractions,” according to pregnancy pundits on the site. “No study has proven these claims, however, and experts say that the lack of quality data makes this tea a risky bet.”
Meanwhile, when reached by The Post for comment about the brand’s latest viral sensation, a rep for Starbucks said, “Raspberry syrup was discontinued in spring 2023, so beverage customizations with raspberry syrup are no longer available.”
Meanwhile, an April 2023 report from the American Pharmacists Association referenced two 2021 studies on the effects of raspberry tea in late-stage pregnancy and its analysis found little to no link between the drink and labor activation.
Luckily for Laidler, however, her raspberry-flavored libation fully delivered.
“Update: Drank the ‘Pregnancy Drink’ from Starbucks, and 8 hours later [I] gave birth at 39 weeks and four days,” she said in a TikTok clip shared immediately after the footage of her sipping the lauded tea.
In her follow-up post, which she titled “Labor Hack,” Laidler is fresh out of delivery, sipping water in a hospital bed.
“It really worked!” she wrote in the video’s caption, along with tags “#RasberryLeafTea,” #StarbucksDrinks” and “#LaborHacks.”
But some members of Laidler’s online audience, who tried their hand at the hack, weren’t as lucky.
“I’ve been drinking mine everyday and walking baby still not coming. [It’s] been 2 weeks,” groaned an exasperated mom-to-be.
“I drank it daily for two weeks, and he was like, ‘Nah I’ll stay’ then labored for 13 hrs before he decided to meet the world,” another woman chimed in.
One mom, however, claims to have shared Laidler’s success.
“Drank it and my water broke less then 4 hours later,” she gushed, “and let me tell you I didn’t believe it before.”
