My book ‘Kitty Campion’s Holistic Herbal for Mother and Baby’ covers a lot of information about the safety or otherwise of specific herbs in pregnancy but, and this is important, as an astonishing 93% of midwives have no idea of what their charges are taking by way of natural health products during their gestation.
Harmful Herbs
Blue Cohosh has cardiovascular side effects on pregnant women and their babies in utero. Goldenseal, bearberry and barberry (berberies vulgaris) may displace bilirubin bound to albumin and aggravate newborn jaundice.
There is some question about St John’s wort’s ability to induce thrombocytopenia at 24 weeks gestation (though the author did not attribute this to this herb).
