IS IT OK to take echinacea when you鈥檙e expecting a baby? How about chamomile tea? Time was you could ask three doctors and get three different answers.
Now pharmacologist Gideon Koren, at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and his colleagues have compiled a comprehensive listing of common herbs, vitamins and supplements and, drawing on all available studies, have graded the quality of evidence on their safety during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Cranberries, echinacea, garlic and ginger, for instance, used for urinary tract infections, colds, hypertension and nausea respectively, have all been given an A rating for safety. That means the trials that have shown them to be safe were large and well-conducted. On the other hand, there is 鈥渟trong scientific evidence鈥� that parsley, consumed as an antioxidant, could increase the chance of miscarriage.
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The greatest unknowns, says Koren, remain the substances used to bring on labour, such as black cohosh. 鈥淭here are no good studies,鈥� he says.
The details were presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians in Phoenix, Arizona.
