Women's perspectives towards traditional and complementary medicine used to conceive, during pregnancy and the postpartum period

Abstract

Objectives This study aims to explore pregnant and postpartum women's understanding of the meaning of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) and how that may affect their T&CM use. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires. Data collected from 374 women were analysed and represented via descriptive statistics. Results Out of the 374 participants, 285 (76.2%) reported using at least one type of T&CM to conceive, during pregnancy or in the postpartum period. The majority of the participants identified that T&CM is all about plants or natural products without chemicals or drugs (n = 267, 71.4%, p