2. Herbal medicine use during pregnancy: benefits and untoward effects

Herbal medicine use during pregnancy is common across regions and countries. The prevalence of herbal medicine use during pregnancy is varied across regions and countries. Multinational study conducted in different countries showed that 28.9% of pregnant women used herbal medicine during pregnancy [2, 4]. A literature review from the Middle East revealed that up to 82.2% of the women used herbal medicine at some point during pregnancy. The study also identified that many women used herbal medicine during the first trimester [5]. An observational cohort study done in South West England found that 26.7% of the women used a complementary or alternative medicine at least once during pregnancy. The use of herbs rose from 6% in the first trimester to 12.4% in the second trimester and to 26.3% in third trimester [13]. In Australia, 36% of the women took at least one herbal medicine during pregnancy [14]. Studies done in Africa showed the prevalence of herbal medicine use during pregnancy was between 12 and 73.1% [3, 6–9, 15–19].

The most commonly consumed herbal medicines during pregnancy include; ginger [2, 4–11], cranberry [2, 4, 10–11], valerian [2, 4, 10], raspberry leaf [2, 4, 10–11, 13], chamomile [13–14], peppermint [5, 13], rosehip [13], thyme [5], fenugreek [5, 9], green tea, sage, and aniseed [5]. Eucalyptus, tenaadam (Ruta chalepensis), damakess (Ocimum lamiifolium), feto, omore are also other herbal medicines used during pregnancy [6–8]. Garlic [6–8, 15–18], palm kernel oil, bitter kola and dogonyaro (Azadirachta indica) are other herbs that are used during pregnancy [15–18].

Being students, having no education, having low income and having tertiary education level make women more likely to use herbal medicine during pregnancy [2, 4, 6–8, 15–18]. The other factors that make women more likely to consume herbal medicines are being primiparas [2, 4, 9], non-smoking [2, 9] and old age women [13–14].

Based on the available researches and literature reviews, the most commonly used herbal medicines during pregnancy are identified. The benefits and untoward effects of the herbs are also reviewed.
