Abstract:
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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
