Qualitative study of utilization of traditional drugs among pregnant women in Huye district of Rwanda: the case of save and Rango health centers

Abstract

Traditional medicine is often considered as ‘natural’ and ‘safe’. These convictions may mainly attract pregnant women who are often concerned with the well-being of their unborn children. So far, few studies regarding the use of herbal drugs during pregnancy and the factors related to their use have been conducted. The main objective was to analyze the use of traditional medicines used by pregnant women, in order to contribute to the improvement and safety of these women in Rwanda. Consequently, in Rwanda there is limited data about traditional medicine use. The study was carried out in Huye District, Southern Province, where two health centers were selected randomly; Save Health Center located in rural area and Rango Health Center located in the urban part of the district. Two methods of data collection were used: Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and the Individual Interviews with professionals of health. The study population in the focus group was 53 women including pregnant women, breastfeeding women, while the individual interviews were 9 people including: traditional midwives, herbalist, doctors and nurses from two health centers. The study showed that socio-cultural influence, family influence, unfavorable environment like economic factors, long distances to health centers and hospitals, ignorance and experience of people’s descendants to have used traditional medicine were found to make people take traditional medicine. In addition to that, the results indicated that there are some diseases that modern medicine cannot cure. Hence, resorting to traditional medicine becomes responsive. These results have shown that traditional medicine can have some negative consequences like intoxication of the liver and kidney due to the high concentration or high amounts of medication. According to participants, the use of traditional medicines itself is not iii bad for people used to take them over centuries to treat many diseases. However, the actual challenge is that people tend to take these medicines on their own without consulting professional herbalists or even going to registered herbalists. People strongly believe in the use of traditional medicines as noted by respondents, due to various factors as explained in this study. In short, traditional medicine remains highly used with a low level of government regulation and the sensitization of the population to stop using them is still a great challenge as well. A number of recommendations were given both to the general public and the Rwandan Ministry of Health.