Prevalence, knowledge and attitudes toward herbal medication use during pregnancy, labor and after delivery among pregnant women

Problem

Determine the prevalence of herbal medication use during pregnancy, labor and after delivery in Saudi Arabia.

Approach

A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted over from Mid-September to Mid-December 2015.

The study was conducted in three main hospitals and three primary health care centers in Riyadh Province.The targeted population included any Saudi woman in the central region who has previously been pregnant.The estimated sample size was 527, with ± 5% accuracy, an alpha of 0.02. The sample size was adjusted to 600 to account for possible data loss . A validated, confidential, self-administrated semi-structured questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. it contained a total of 42 questions. 36 were close ended question and 5 open ended question. Out of the 36 open ended question, 11 contained the option “others”. The questionnaire also contained definitions of both herbal medicine and prescription medicine in the beginning of the questionnaire to rule out any confusion that may arise during the filling process.Letters of authorization were obtained from each hospital prior to the distribution of the questionnaire, and a verbal informed consent from the participants. The proposal was approved by the Ethics Committee of Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University Institutional Review Board. A randomized sampling method was used during the distribution of the questionnaire. After excluding incomplete questionnaires, data of 612 participants (exceeding the minimum sample size of 527) were obtained and entered into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences v22. Both descriptive statistics in the form of frequency and percentage and chi-square test were performed. P values equal to or less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Findings

Out of the 612 participant, 25.8% used herbs during pregnancy, 33.7% used it during labor and 48.9% used it after delivery. The primary motives behind using herbal medication during pregnancy, labor and after delivery where to boost general health, ease and speed up labor and to clean the womb respectively. There was significant association between use during pregnancy and prior use (P =0.001). Most pregnant women used it based on an advice from family and friends (52.9%) and herbal shops where the most common source (86.5%). Only 40.7% of pregnant women disclosed herbal use to their doctors. There is uncertainty about the safety of herbal medication for general use.

Consequences

The prevalence of herbal medication use among pregnant Saudi women is fairly common. Doctors should make efforts in asking about herbal medication use and to be aware of evidence regarding potential benefits or harm of herbal medication use during pregnancy.