[Gestational disorders]

We present the results of an interview of 375 pregnant women which explores their gestational risk diagnoses, the types and frequencies of complaints. Five groups of 75 patients each were formed from this random sample corresponding to 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38 weeks of pregnancy respectively. We too analyze the patients' opinions about their own morbidity, the repercussion on activities of daily life and self-medication. The interview included the actions taken on their own account to deal with complaints during pregnancy, as well as to establish the relationships between these actions and medical attention they received. A total of 1534 complaints were recorded from the entire group, the mean per patient were four with a range from one to six. The reported from the entire group, the mean per patient were four with a range from one to six. The reported complaints did not caused medical consultation and were totally different with the respective risk diagnoses. Our results show that patients almost always accept their symptoms as a normal part of pregnancy, even when arise from pathology. Almost 70% of the patients view their symptoms as normal despite the fact that they produce difficulties of daily life in 41%, and that they temporarily block these activities in 19%. Around 10% of the patients admit self-medication. Over 50 types of actions were self-initiated, 1371 for the entire group as a whole. Around 95% of the complaints considered abnormal received no medical attention. We presented a series of thoughts on the effectiveness of popular practices and the possibility of integrating some of them into medical practice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)