Expectant Moms Say This Salad Induces Labor

After nine months of pain and discomfort associated with pregnancy, most overdue women are anxious to meet their babies. Women try everything from nipple stimulation to walking lunges, eating entire pineapples and spicy food, or hot bath and sex to induce labor. Now a California restaurant claims to have the answer.

Caioti Pizza Cafe, in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, has pregnant women clamoring for a salad said to get contractions started within hours of dining. The salad is made from romaine lettuce, watercress, walnuts, pasteurized gorgonzola, and a secret dressing.

“Apparently the staff has to sign confidentiality agreements!” one woman wrote of the dressing on Instagram. “Our server there told us that they had a woman whose water broke last week while she was eating the salad. Pretty sure it was just a coincidence but I’m willing to try just about anything at this point.”

Some speculate that the secret ingredient is castor oil, a stimulant laxative that causes bowel contractions, which are said to then stimulate uterine contractions. Whatever it is, many seem to think that it works. “Ate that and went into labor 5 hours later!!!” one woman wrote on Instagram. “I didn’t really believe it, but when we went, they had tons of articles, stories, and personal letters from people who it worked for. The waitress said labor typically starts 6 to 12 hours after eating the salad!”

The restaurant has a board of the latest “salad babies” and keeps a book for women to sign when they come in for the salad.

“Pregnant women come in every day — we have between five and 20 a day — they’re past due and they want to get the baby out,” owner Carrie LaDou told Today. “This isn’t something we set out to do — a lady came in 28 years ago who was past due and ate the salad, then felt contractions and went into labor. From there, the salad’s popularity just kept increasing.”

She continued, “We’re not saying it’s the dressing — we don’t know what it is,” said LaDou. “So, I always tell them, ‘If you’re here to have a baby, you need to have the salad as it’s meant to be. … There are now kids that are literally in their twenties who come in and eat and tell us that their mom ate the salad.”

Caioti Pizza Cafe’s Maternity Salad isn’t the only dish said to miraculously induce labor. In Smyrna, Ga., Scalini’s Italian Restaurant serves a breaded eggplant parmigiana smothered in cheese and thick marinara sauce that’s said to coax babies out of the womb. More than 300 pregnant customers have given birth within 48 hours of eating the dish, and the restaurant dubs them the “eggplant babies.”

Skipolini’s Pizza Restaurant in Clayton, Calif., also serves a dish that many women claim induces labor. The pizza has been served since 1981 and is loaded with vegetables, six types of meat, and extra garlic and onions. “After years of success, the ‘Prego’ pizza has been growing in popularity,” Skipolini’s writes on its website. “It has been recommended by doctors and OBGYNs everywhere.”

If you can’t make it to California or Georgia but you’re getting antsy, maybe you just need to eat some Italian food.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

• This Eggplant Parm Recipe Is Known to Send Pregnant Women Into Labor

• Woman Shares Before-and-After Baby Body Photos to Inspire Body Acceptance

• ‘It Still Works!’: This Hilarious Pregnancy Announcement is Going Viral

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