Herb Use, Vitamin Use, and Diet in Low‐Income, Postpartum Women

Abstract

Introduction Little is known about herb use among underserved postpartum women and their patterns of communication about herb use with prenatal providers. Methods We interviewed women from the postpartum unit at an urban hospital about herb use during pregnancy, socioeconomic factors, prenatal vitamin use, and diet. We asked women if they discussed use of herbs and vitamins with their prenatal care provider, and their satisfaction with these discussions. We reviewed inpatient chart medication lists for herb use. Results Of 160 women surveyed, 39% reported using herbs during pregnancy. Sixty five percent of subjects took a prenatal vitamin. Fifty-seven percent of herb users (n=40) reported taking prenatal vitamins. Herb users were significantly more likely to report making any dietary change during their pregnancy than non-herb users (P=0.03). Only 38% of herb users discussed it with their prenatal provider and 82% were satisfied with the conversation. Of all 160 subjects, 125 had prenatal vitamin use documented and no women had herbal medicine use documented in the medical record during their delivery hospitalization. Discussion We report a higher frequency of herb use during pregnancy than other studies. The fact that women of all backgrounds and economic status report using herbs during pregnancy makes it even more important for all women to be asked about their use of herbs.

Healthy eating in pregnancy, education for midwives: A pre-post intervention study

“…A semi-structured questionnaire was developed utilising previously validated questions 3 , 8 , 9 . Information was included to address specific health priorities and guidelines related to nutrition during pregnancy 10 - 17 . Questions were based on findings from a systematic review for the effectiveness of providing healthy eating education for midwives 6 .…”

Patient–physician communication on herbal medicine use during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Among 111 studies, 102 studies were cross-sectional in design 27 61–161. Three studies used mixed-method approaches,162–164 and six studies had non-cross-sectional designs (ie, longitudinal and case–control),165–170 but reported cross-sectional data on HM use during pregnancy (online supplemental appendix 6).…”

“…Regarding the geographical distribution of included studies, a majority of them were conducted in Africa 66 69 77 81 82 89 91 95 98 100 101 105 106 115 116 119 121–123 129 132–135 137–140 143 144 146 150 153 156 158–164. Lastly, 21 out of 111 studies presented findings related to pregnant women’s disclosure of HM use to their healthcare providers 27 70 73 83 85 86 91 109 110 115 117 122 125 126 129 133 142 149 155 160 164…”

Complementary and alternatives care for postpartum preeclampsia: A scoping review

“…The results depict that herbal ingredients are effective in treating preeclampsia after childbirth (Gardiner et al 2013;Wang et al 2021). Wang et al 2021, provided a more indepth analysis of the variance between the experimental and control groups' overall clinical successful rates of therapy utilizing herbal medicine, which were 90.36 and 71.08%, respectively (Wang et al 2021).…”

“…Seven papers were located that addressed the use of nonconventional treatments for preeclampsia, some of which might be used in the postpartum period as well In light of Egypt (Awad et al 2019), China (Wang et al 2021), United States of America (Gardiner et al 2013), Iran (Jahdi et al 2016;Kianpour et al 2016) and Indonesia (Nikmah and Machmudah 2019;Zainiyah et al 2019), in the treatment of preeclampsia following delivery, each of these options varies in certain ways while also sharing some commonalities (see Table 1).…”