The Effect of Herbal Medicine on Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal in Nigeria Navy Reference Hospital, Calabar
Abstract
This study was carried out to assess the effect of herbal medicine on pregnant women attending antenatal in Nigeria Navy Reference Hospital Calabar. Three research questions as well as three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study was a descriptive cross sectional research design, where 231 pregnant women attending antenatal in Nigeria Navy Reference Hospital Calabar participated. Questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Face validity was adopted for the study while reliability for the instrument was ensured using test-retest reliability method. Data collected from the 231 respondents were analyzed using frequencies and simple percentages. The hypothesis formulated was tested for significance at 0.05 level using the chi-square (x2) analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there were several factors that encouraged the utilization of herbal medicine among pregnant women such as religion/culture, lack of finance, behavior of clinic staff, social pressure, cultural beliefs and myths amongst others. The common herbal medicine often used by these pregnant women included aloe vera, lemon grass, ginger, garlic, cranberry, bitter kola, green tea, herbal enema, valerian and peppermint (45%). Furthermore, miscarriage, stomach discomfort and heartburn, were some of the identified effects of herbal medicine on foetus and pregnant women attending antenatal in Nigeria Navy Reference Hospital Calabar. Thus, it was established that pregnant women who patronizes herbal medicine are exposed to several negative effects which in turn, affects their health and the foetus. Consequently, the study recommends amongst others, that the government should utilize all forms of media to create awareness on the negative effects of herbal medicine in order to enable pregnant women make informed decisions before using any herbal medicine. More so, pregnant women should seek health professionals before consuming any herbal medicine in order to prevent harm to the foetus and their health.
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References
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