Traditional medicine utilisation and maternal complications during antenatal care among women in Bulilima, Plumtree, Zimbabwe

BACKGROUND: As part of the expectation enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals, countries are expected to ensure maternal health outcomes are improved. It follows that under ideal circumstances, pregnant women should deliver safely without complications, neonatal, and maternal mortality. This paper analyses the relationship between traditional medicine utilisation and maternal complications during antenatal care among women in Bulilima, Plumtree, Zimbabwe. METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted on 185 randomly selected women who responded to a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. The Fisher’s Exact Test and the Test of Proportions were used to probe the relationship between traditional medicine utilisation and the prevalence of maternal complications using STATA SE Version 13. RESULTS: Complications were reported by (51) 29% of the women who were under study. The proportion of women who developed complications was higher in those that did not use traditional medicine as compared to those that used traditional medicine (30 and 26% respectively). In a generalised assessment, women who did not use traditional medicine contributed a significantly higher proportion of complications as compared to those that utilised traditional medicine. CONCLUSION: This study found a significant relationship between the utilisation of traditional medicines and lesser chances of experiencing maternal complications. Significantly higher prevalence of maternal complications was observed in women who did not use traditional medicine compared to those that did. There is, therefore, a need to investigate further the constituents or active ingredients in this traditional medicine. This study provides a window of opportunity for fully recognising and integrating traditional medicine into Modern Health Systems. It can be argued that traditional medicine utilisation could be a viable alternative to modern medicine, particularly in resource-poor settings where access to modern medicine is seriously constrained.