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UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Family Medicine and Community HealthCenter for Integrated Primary Care
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2010-05-01Keywords
Alternative and Complementary MedicineBehavioral Medicine
Female Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy Complications
Health Psychology
Integrative Medicine
Maternal and Child Health
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Interest in herbal treatments has increased without data on safety, efficacy, or rates of use in pregnancy. We examined antenatal herbal and natural product use among mothers of nonmalformed infants in 5 geographic centers. STUDY DESIGN: We used data on nonmalformed infants from the Slone Epidemiology Center's case-control surveillance program for birth defects to examine rates and predictors of herbal use. Exposures were identified through maternal interview. In addition to overall use, 5 categories based on traditional uses and 2 natural product categories were created; topical products and herbal-containing multivitamins were excluded. RESULTS: Among 4866 mothers of nonmalformed infants, 282 (5.8%) reported use of herbal or natural treatments. Use varied by study center and increased with increasing age. CONCLUSION: Although rates of use are low, there remains a need for investigation of the safety of these products. Given sparse data on efficacy, even small risks might well outweigh benefits.Source
Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2010 May;202(5):439.e1-439.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2010.01.055. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1016/j.ajog.2010.01.055Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/26820PubMed ID
20452484Notes
At the time of publication, Paula Gardiner was not yet affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
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10.1016/j.ajog.2010.01.055