Utilisation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners within maternity care provision: results from a nationally representative cohort study of 1,835 pregnant women

Abstract

BackgroundThere is little known about women’s concurrent use of conventional and complementary health care during pregnancy, particularly consultation patterns with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This study examines health service utilisation among pregnant women including consultations with obstetricians, midwives, general practitioners (GPs) and CAM practitioners.MethodsA sub-study of pregnant women (n=2445) was undertaken from the nationally-representative Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH). Women’s consultations with conventional practitioners (obstetricians, GPs and midwives) and CAM practitioners for pregnancy-related health conditions were analysed. The analysis included Pearson chi-square tests to compare categorical variables.ResultsThe survey was completed by 1835 women (response rate = 79.2%). A substantial number (49.4%) of respondents consulted with a CAM practitioner for pregnancy-related health conditions. Many participants consulted only with a CAM practitioner for assistance with certain conditions such as neck pain (74.6%) and sciatica (40.4%). Meanwhile, women consulted both CAM practitioners and conventional maternity health professionals (obstetricians, midwives and GPs) for back pain (61.8%) and gestational diabetes (22.2%). Women visiting a general practitioner (GP) 3–4 times for pregnancy care were more likely to consult with acupuncturists compared with those consulting a GP less often (p=<0.001, x2=20.5). Women who had more frequent visits to a midwife were more likely to have consulted with an acupuncturist (p=<0.001, x2=18.9) or a doula (p=<0.001, x2=23.2) than those visiting midwives less frequently for their pregnancy care.ConclusionsThe results emphasise the necessity for a considered and collaborative approach to interactions between pregnant women, conventional maternity health providers and CAM practitioners to accommodate appropriate information transferral and co-ordinated maternity care. The absence of sufficient clinical evidence regarding many commonly used CAM practices during pregnancy also requires urgent attention.

The Complementary Therapies for Labour and Birth Study making sense of labour and birth – Experiences of women, partners and midwives of a complementary medicine antenatal education course

“…The results from the randomised controlled trial (ref to be included) indicated that the women who participated in this study may have been a more anxious cohort. They also tended to be women from a higher socio-economic background and have higher educational attainment, which is consistent with the research regarding the population of women who are more likely to use complementary therapies (Adams, Sibbritt, & Lui, 2011;Steel et al, 2012).…”

Impact of acupressure on onset of labour and labour duration: A systematic review

“…44 A systematic review provides a retrospective, criteriabased approach for summarising research findings. 45,46 By applying the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) 27-step checklist to the trials under review we were able to use predetermined standards and uniform criteria to evaluate the selected trials and potential bias in the quality assessment process.…”

An integrative review of complementary and alternative medicine use for back pain: a focus on prevalence, reasons for use, influential factors, self-perceived effectiveness, and communication

“…Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) refers to a broad range of healing modalities external to the biomedical models of health care with an array of nonprescription products and health-care services not linked to the medical profession or the medical curriculum [1][2][3]. Despite lacking evidence base, CAM has become widely available internationally and has become popular in recent years in Australia and United States among many other countries [4,5].…”