If women eat six dates every day during the last month of their pregnancy, they'll halve the time it takes to give birth, a trial from Sarajevo suggests.

Study
In 2025, gynecologists from the University of Sarajevo published a study in Medical Archives that included 120 pregnant women.

The researchers divided the women into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. During the last four weeks of their pregnancy, the women in the experimental group were given six dates daily. The total amount would have been approximately 48-72 grams per day.

Results
The women who ate dates had a smoother labor than those who did not.

More women in the date group gave birth spontaneously, without invasive medical procedures. Moreover, labor in the date group was shorter. The average labor in the control group lasted approximately 15 hours. In the date group, it was 6.5 hours.

The table below summarizes the results of the trial. Click on it for a larger version.

Active ingredients
The researchers suspect that substances in dates stimulate the synthesis of prostaglandins in the body. Prostaglandins trigger contractions during labor.

Among these potentially active substances are fatty acids such as linoleic acid. However, we, the ignorant compilers of this free web magazine, think that the amount of linoleic acid in dates is negligible. If the prostaglandin theory is correct, other components are involved.

Another theory is that substances in dates increase the number of oxytocin receptors in the body or make those receptors more sensitive. Oxytocin also stimulates contractions.