Background. Breastfeeding women with hypogalactia are commonly recommended to use fenugreek as a galactogogue. This study aimed to achieve formal consensus among breastfeeding women and healthcare providers on which potential harms and benefits of using fenugreek need to be communicated and discussed during clinical consultations. Methods. A two-iterative round Delphi technique was used in two separate panels of breastfeeding women (n=65) and healthcare providers (n=56) to achieve formal consensus on a list of 24 and 16 items related to potential harms and benefits of fenugreek. Results. About 70% of the healthcare providers recommended quite often herbal remedies for breastfeeding women and about 68% of the women had been recommended to use herbal remedies many times by their healthcare providers. Consensus was achieved on 21 potential harms and 14 potential benefits of using fenugreek to enhance human milk supply that need to be discussed with breastfeeding women during consultations. Conclusion. Probably, potential harms and benefits of recommending fenugreek as herbal galactogogue for breastfeeding women seeking recommendations to increase their human milk supply need to be discussed during clinical consultations. Further observational studies are needed to assess what is being discussed in daily consultations when herbal remedies are recommended. © 2018 Ramzi Shawahna et al.

Title

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Publisher

Hindawi Limited

Publisher Country

Egypt

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

1.74

Publication Type

Prtinted only

Volume

2018

Year

2018

Pages

--