Midwives' perceptions of Complementary and Alternative Medicines' during pregnancy

Using Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAMs) is growing worldwide. This study determined the midwives' attitude toward CAMs in general and their view on its safety and efficacy during pregnancy. Via a random sampling method, 344 midwives working in Mazandaran primary health centers (PHC) were recruited from March to November 2017. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The majority of the midwives had positive view on the usefulness of CAMs in general (74.3 %) and thought they should have more knowledge about it (76.7 %). While 50-83 % of the midwives considered some CAM-therapies safe and beneficial, a small number of them referred the patients for CAM-therapy during pregnancy (1.2-5.4 %). A minority of the midwives stated that CAM may be a threat to public health (12.7 %). The midwives' perception toward the usefulness of CAM in general was positive; although, they approved the benefit of few CAMs during pregnancy. A small minority of the midwives considered CAMs as a threat to public health, and few of them advised the patients to use CAMs during pregnancy. As most midwives are interested in learning in this field, it is recommended to run some training programs on the benefit and side effects of CAMs.