Traditional Methods That Are Known and Used by Pregnant Women in the Case of a Hospital

Traditional medicine is the practices applied among the people that have been used for preventing diseases, diagnosing or treating diseases, based on the experience and observations of the people, diagnosis, treatment and observations in various cultures that are also at the roots of modern / scientific medicine, and they last throughout the ages. During the last decade, use of traditional medicine has expanded worldwide. The aim of this study is to determine the traditional methods used to conceive and miscarriage of pregnant women who admitted to an outpatient clinic of a university hospital. This cross-sectional study's data were obtained among 329 pregnant women admitted at the university hospital between 15.08.2018-15.09.2018. The data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included, sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics of the participants, knowledge and used of traditional methods in order to conceive and abortion. Mann-Whitney U and chi-square analysis were used for data analysis. The average age of the participants was 28.9 +/- 5.9, the age of marriage was 22.9 +/- 4.8 and the first gestational age was 23.9 +/- 5.1. In total 235 (73.2%) of the participants were not working and the monthly income of 199 (63.0%) was less than 2000 Turkish liras. The traditional methods used to conceive are the most commonly known for having the amulet written, sweeping blowing and drinking of boiling onion peels, and the most well-known ones used for miscarriage are heavy goods lifting, jumping high and jumping rope. Sixty-five (19.8%) of the women knew any of the traditional methods used to conceive and 96 (29.2%) miscarry. Five women (1.5%) used a traditional method to become pregnant and 14 (4.3%) to miscarry. The knowledge of traditional methods to conceive was higher among unmarried women. The knowledge of traditional methods to miscarriage is higher among unmarried women, women whose educational level is higher than high school, among those whose husbands are educated in high school level and above, those who does not work, those whose husbands are civil servants, and those whose monthly income is above 5000 liras. In addition, the knowledge of traditional methods to miscarriage increased with the age, marriage age and first gestational age, the number of pregnancies and the number of induced abortions. Women who were born in the village and who had induced abortion were more likely to use a traditional method of abortion. If a woman living in the neighborhood used a traditional method to conceive and miscarry, the women who participated in the study knew and practiced traditional methods. Among the women participating in the study, there are women who know and practice the traditional methods used to conceive or miscarry. The traditional methods specified by the participants include those that are harmful to health. This is a problem that needs to be addressed in terms of public health. Health professionals should pay special attention to women who are not married, who do not work and who have a high level of education and income. It should be noted that in family counselling, the relatively old women with a high number of pregnancies and those who have had induced abortion should be informed of the health risks that might arise from traditional methods. It is seen that women are affected by their environment. Therefore, it is important that health personnel provide training on modern methods.