Traditional management of gastrointestinal minor discomforts during pregnancy

ABSTRACT

Every system in the body is adjusted and affected by pregnancy. However, some minor discomforts may accompany even a normal pregnancy. Nausea, vomiting, heart burn, ptyalism, pica, bleeding gums, constipation, flatulence, and hemorrhoids refer to digestive system minor discomforts of pregnancy, but the most common are, morning sickness, heart burn and constipation. This study aimed at identifying the traditional management of gastrointestinal minor discomforts during pregnancy. The study was conducted on 300 pregnant women attending six maternal and child health centers in Tanta City, where 50 women were chosen from each setting. A specially designed interview schedule was used to collect the socio-demographic data, history of gastrointestinal minor discomforts during present and previous pregnancy, and women practices to overcome them. The results revealed that morning sickness was the most significant complaint during previous and current pregnancies [70% and 60%, respectively], followed by heart burn [64% and 52.7%, respectively], then constipation [53.3% and 51%, respectively]. It was found that the majority of the studied subjects used harmful practices to relieve morning sickness such as eat salty food and pickles, induce vomiting, drink boiled fenugreek seeds. The majority of the subjects did harmful practice to relieve heart burn in the form of eating green fenugreek or lettuce, vicia faba or luppinus, drinking sodium bicarbonate dissolved in water and taking antiacid without any prescription. Useful practices to relieve constipation were reported by slightly more than one-third of the subjects. It involved increasing intake of chicory, vegetables, and fruits as well as increasing intake of fluids, milk, and yogurt. Women's practices to relieve morning sickness and heart burn were significantly influenced by their education [x[2] = 8.442, p= 0.0157 and x[2] = 13.987, p = 0.0073, respectively]. Better educated women had more tendencies to use useful practices, while women with limited educational background had more tendencies to use harmful ones. The results of the present study also revealed a significant relationship between women's practices to relieve morning sickness and constipation and their occupation [x[2] = 8.306, p = 0.0175 and x[2] = 7.189, p = 0.0275, respectively]