Fears drive traditional medicine use during pregnancy



In rural Mpumalanga, some women believe that the use of traditional medicine during pregnancy can shorten labour.
Conversely, many women believe pills such as pre-natal vitamins and treatment to prevent anemia will make their babies’ heads swell. Some opt for traditional medicine instead but nurses have issued a stern warning against the practice.
After Lindiwe Khumalo’s first labour lasted 26 hours, family members recommended she use traditional medicine to help shorten her labour with her second child. Khumalo said she was not sure if her husband would agree.
“I began giving my (first) daughter traditional medicine I was assured it is safe but my daughter had to be hospitalised at Mediclinic in Nelspruit for a week,” said Khumalo, who added that she approached her husband about using traditional medicine when she was about six months pregnant. “It wasn’t easy convincing him because we almost lost our first child but eventually he agreed.”
According to the US nonprofit Mayo Clinic, the average length of a woman’s first labour can be as long as 12 hours. Subsequent deliveries usually take less time.
Xolile Sgudla said she also used traditional medicine during her pregnancy at her mother’s behest.
[quote float=”right”]“If by chance someone suggests the use of traditional medicine, there are midwives in the clinics or hospitals that you can ask whether it’s right or wrong”
“Because my mother is a sangoma, she started giving me traditional medicine,” Sgudla said. “Although I always take the tablets from the clinic, I usually throw the tablets in the toilet because I have been told that they would make my unborn baby’s head grow bigger than its body.”
In April, OurHealth reported on the case of week-old Lerato Ngobeni who almost died after her grandmother advised the use of traditional medicine for the young child.
When in doubt, ask a nurse
But Nurse Ntombi Zwane says women may be taking a dangerous gamble with their health and that of their babies as traditional medicines may damage a woman’s body and can even kill her baby.
“I understand that, as Africans, we trust and believe that all traditional medicine is safe but some is not,” she said. “Being a health care worker, I strongly discourage and don’t condone the use of traditional medicine while a woman is pregnant.”
Zwane advised women to be honest with health care workers about the traditional medicines they have used and when in doubt to consult a nurse or midwife.
“Regardless of our shouting, the expecting mother should be honest with us and ask questions if there are any,” she told OurHealth. “If by chance someone suggests the use of traditional medicine, there are midwives in the clinics or hospitals that you can ask whether it’s right or wrong,”
When Khumalo delivered her second baby, she lied to nurses about taking traditional medicine during her pregnancy. She said she only found out about the risks to her baby then. She also had a difficult delivery with her second child.
Author
-
Cynthia Maseko joined OurHealth in 2013 as a citizen journalist working in Mpumalanga. She is passionate about women’s health issues and joined Treatment Action Campaign branch as a volunteer after completing her matric. As an activist she has been involved with Equal Treatment, Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and also with Marie Stopes Clinic’s project Blue Star dealing with the promotion of safe abortions and HIV education.
View all posts
Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Unless otherwise noted, you can republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license. Here’s what you need to know:
-
You have to credit Health-e News. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication.” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by Health-e News.” You must link the word “Health-e News” to the original URL of the story.
-
You must include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up link.
-
If you use canonical metadata, please use the Health-e News URL. For more information about canonical metadata, click here.
-
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week”)
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. Health-e News understands that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarise or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. You can find us on Twitter @HealthENews, Instagram @healthenews, and Facebook Health-e News Service.
You can grab HTML code for our stories easily. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our stories. You’ll find it with the other share buttons.
If you have any other questions, contact info@health-e.org.za.
Fears drive traditional medicine use during pregnancy
by Cynthia Maseko, Health-e News
August 11, 2014
MOST READ
Tembisa hospital open to the public, cause of fire under investigation
Gauteng Health’s cost-cutting measures could leave patients waiting over 4 months for care
Tembisa Hospital closed to new patients following emergency unit fire
Eastern Cape Health struggles to repair weather-damaged facilities
EDITOR'S PICKS
Related



Bipolar disorder misinformation prevents people from seeking help


