A systematic on the medicinal plants used in the treatment of postpartum pain in Iran

Postpartum pain is one of the major and common problems of mothers after childbirth and in order to relieve the pain and to avoid the side effects of chemical drugs, doctors are turning to medicinal herbs. In recent years, with the clear need for evidence-based clinical practice, appropriate and valid information is needed. Therefore, this study was performed with aim to evaluate the clinical trials studies on the medicinal plants used in the treatment of postpartum pain in Iran.
In this a systematic review, the data on the effects of medicinal plants on the postpartum pains were collected, without a time limitation, by Persian and English languages keywords, from the databases of PubMed, SID, Iran Medex, IRCT, Google Scholar, Magiran, Science Direct, MedLib, Scopus, Cochranelibra, Web of science and the library site of Shahid Beheshti Medical University and using the keywords of Postnatal care, Postpartum care, Postpartum program, Pain, Herbal medicine, Medicinal plants and Clinical trial. According to the Jadad standard, the articles which obtained the score of ≥3 were entered to the study. The data analysis was conducted qualitatively.
In this study, nine clinical trials including 10 types of medicinal plants (Lavender, Carum carvil, Cuminum cyminum, Ginger, Pimpinella anisum, Apium graveolens, Saffron, Anethum gravelens, Foeniculum and Chamomile) were evaluated. All plants had the desired effects in relieving postpartum pains. Most of these herbs had no side effects or the least side effects. Since the methodology of the studies were non-heterogeneous in terms of quality, meta-analysis was not possible to be done.
Although all plants (Lavender, Carum carvil, Cuminum cyminum, Ginger, Pimpinella anisum, Apium graveolens, Saffron, Anethum gravelens, Foeniculum and Chamomile) reduced postpartum pain and are effective, but the number of such studies for each herb is low; thus, there is no sufficient clinical evidence for the practical application of each of the herbs, and more studies are needed in this field.