• Maryam Saber, Narges Khanjani, Maryam Zamanian, Hadise Safinejad, Sholeh Shahinfar, and Mahboobe Borhani.
• Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
• Arch Iran Med. 2019 Jul 1; 22 (7): 390-393.

BackgroundPregnant women take medicinal plants for various reasons, supposing that these plants are completely safe for their fetus and their own health. This study aims to identify all types of medicinal plants and synthetic medicines used by pregnant women in Kerman and to study factors related to their use.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 150 women who had received prenatal care at 12 health centers in Kerman in 2017 were interviewed. Chi-square, t test and logistic regression were applied to investigate factors such as age, gestational age, mother's education, mother's occupation, perception of safety related to the use of medicinal plants and synthetic medicine during pregnancy.ResultsIn this study, the rate of taking medicinal plants was 71.3% in pregnant women. The most common used medicinal plants and synthetic medicines were mint water (30%) and vitamins (47.3%), respectively. The most important mentioned reason for taking these medicinal plants during pregnancy was digestive problems. 52% of people believed that medicinal plants don't have any side effects. The chance of taking medicinal plants in housewives was 4.4 times more than employed women. Thinking that these medicines are safe to use increased the possibility of taking medicinal plants and synthetic medicines 4.5 and 3.1 times, respectively.ConclusionDue to the potential side effects of medicinal plants, development and implementation of training programs to increase pregnant women's knowledge and a plan for specialized training for midwives and physicians employed in health centers seems necessary.© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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