Herbal Remedies during pregnancy

There is very little known about herbal medicine and nontraditional medications during pregnancy.  Many women don’t consider herbal remedies to be medicine and when pregnant women don’t report their use of theses substances to their obstetricians, this is worrisome because even “herbs or vitamin supplements” can have side effects or interactions with other medications.

Herbal medications are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), therefore there is no good control over these products.  In some cases, herbal remedies may not even contain the substance that is listed on the bottle.  It may contain the concentration stated in the label or it may have a higher or lower level of the substance.

Women who don’t think of herbal remedies as medicines should volunteer the information about its use to their physician.