OA16.04. Women’s sources of information for CAM use during pregnancy

Purpose It is well known that women of reproductive age are high consumers of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with emerging research highlighting the use of high amounts of CAM in pregnancy. Substantial data exists about the information sources women use for utilising complementary medicines and treatments generally, however little is known about the sources of information used in pregnancy. Various authors have raised concerns about aspects of safety in relation to consuming CAM in pregnancy and it is important to elucidate and understand the resources that women are using to gather this information. The objective of our study was to examine women’s information sources when deciding to use CAM in pregnancy.