Women’s perception of safety and utilization of herbal remedies during pregnancy in a local government area in Nigeria

Abstract

This descriptive study examined the perception of safety and utilization of herbal remedies during pregnancy using a convenience sampling of 300 women. The women who participated in the study were selected at household level from rural communities in Ife-North local government area of Osun state in Nigeria. Data was collected with the aid of semi-structured questionnaire using interviewer-administered method after informed consent had been taken from each participant. The results show that the women had positive perception about the safety and efficacy of herbs over conventional drugs in pregnancy. Greater percentage of the participants studied had used herbs at one point or the other during pregnancy. Local concoction also referred to as “Agbo” was the most used herbs by the women. The need for laboratory exploration of these herbs was emphasized by this study because of the high usage by pregnant women without any empirical evidence on its safety and efficacy.