Effectiveness of ginger tea on nausea, vomiting and retching among antenatal mothers residing in rural community of East Sikkim

Abstract

Background: Nausea, vomiting and retching is a common medical condition in pregnancy affecting women worldwide which occur during the first trimester of pregnancy. Ginger, Zingiber officinale Roscoe, is recognized as a popular non-pharmacological treatment for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP). The present study examined the effectiveness of ginger tea on nausea, vomiting and retching among antenatal mothers residing in rural community of East Sikkim. Methods: This study was conducted in rural community of East Sikkim among 60 antenatal mothers having nausea, with or without vomiting or retching within 8th to 12th weeks of gestational period. True experimental pre-test post-test design was adopted, and the participants were selected using simple random sampling comprising 30 antenatal mothers each in experimental and control group. Demographic and obstetrical data were used to collect personal information and Rhodes Index of nausea, vomiting and retching scale was used to assess the level of symptoms. Experimental group was demonstrated to drink 500 mg of ginger tea twice a day and the control group did not receive any intervention. The post-test was conducted for both the groups after 4 days to assess the level of nausea, vomiting and retching.Result: The findings of the study showed that in the pre-test, majority 53.4% in experimental group had moderate symptoms, 33.3% had mild symptoms and 13.3% had severe symptoms whereas in control group majority 50% had mild symptoms, 36.6% had moderate symptoms, 6.7% had severe symptoms and 6.7% had no symptoms. After the administration of ginger tea to the experimental group, majority 63.3% were having mild symptoms, 20% had no symptoms and 16.7% had moderate symptoms whereas in control group majority 46.7% had moderate symptoms, 43.3% had mild symptoms, 6.7% had severe symptoms and remaining 3.3% had no symptoms in the post-test. There was a significant difference between the post-test level of nausea, vomiting and retching among antenatal mothers in experimental and control group (t= 3.762, p