Reports of Us of Complimentary Health Modalities in Higher Risk Prenatal Populations
Objective: To discover the pervasiveness of complementary health modalities utilized by pregnant women in a higher risk category. To assess these women’s perceived effectiveness of therapies as well as disclosure of their use of an adjunct therapy to their physician. Methods: A descriptive, non-experimental, quantitative research design was utilized. A convenience sample of higher risk pregnant women, greater than 24 weeks pregnant were surveyed. Data were analyzed using SPSS Graduate Pack, Version 12.0 for Windows. Results: A total of 200 surveys were collected. The participants in the study indicated not only that they utilize a variety of complementary health modalities during pregnancy, including various alternative medical systems (15%), mind-body interventions (27%), manipulated and body based (51%), and energy therapies (1%) but they also used a variety of herbs, vitamins and supplements (57.5%). The respondent’s perception of the efficacy of these complementary modalities, including both complementary therapies as well herbs. vitamins and supplements was mostly average (almost 30%) to extremely effective (37%). Only 2% of participants indicated that they perceived their therapy as either not effective or mildly effective. Additionally, discussions between health providers and clients regarding the current use of complementary therapies occurred approximately 56% of the time while 43% of participants indicated they had not discussed with their obstetrical provider, either their own use of adjunct therapies or general use of complementary therapies in pregnancy. Conclusions: The level of use of complementary therapies in this population of pregnant women warrants further exploration and replication of the study to determine use in broader populations and to define implications for nursing practices.
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