Introduction
Organic Pregnancy Tea from Traditional Medicinals is a fertility tea that is designed to help you get through your pregnancy in as healthy a way as possible. Herbal teas have been used to help pregnant women stay healthy for thousands of years, some have been found to be effective, while others have been ineffective. Modern supplement companies have looked to separate the good herbs from the useless, so as to provide the best product possible.
In this article we will be taking a close look at Organic Pregnancy Tea from Traditional Medicinals. We will look to determine whether the supplement can help pregnant women or not, by checking the effectiveness of the chosen ingredients, and analyzing the claims made by Traditional Medicinals about their supplement.
What Is Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea?
Traditional Medicinals is a California-based supplement company that specializes in herbal products. Unlike many similar companies, Traditional Medicinals has been around a long time, being founded 45 years ago in 1974. Organic Pregnancy Tea is a herbal tea that is designed to help support the woman during pregnancy and prepare the womb for childbirth.
One box of Organic Pregnancy Tea contains sixteen tea bags and can be bought from the Traditional Medicinals website for $5.29. You can also find the Pregnancy tea on Amazon.com where it is sold in bulk. You can purchase six boxes (96 tea bags in total) for $26.74 on the Traditional Medicinals website which works out at $0.28 per tea bag.
Traditional Medicinals recommend drinking three to four cups of Pregnancy Tea per day, meaning that 96 tea bags will last you around 30 days. This works out at $25.20 for a 30-day month.
Organic pregnancy tea is directly marketed at women who are already pregnant, Traditional Medicinals has other products that are aimed at women who have just given birth and are breastfeeding. They also have products that are aimed at every aspect of feminine health.
Does Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea Work?
The immediate issue we have with Traditional Medicinals’ Organic Pregnancy Tea is a lack of specific benefits mentioned in their marketing. With most supplements, the company will mention an ingredient and explain what benefits it offers. These benefits all tie in to provide several bullet-points that will help you to understand why you are purchasing the product.
This is not apparent with Organic Pregnancy Tea. Traditional Medicinals does say that the supplement “supports your pregnancy” and that their supplement will “help tone the uterus and prepare the womb for childbirth”. But that really isn’t much to go on. Which ingredients are going to do this? How will they achieve this? What measurable results can we expect (if any)? And what evidence is there to support that?
Sure, we will look into this for you, that’s what this article is here for. But you’d think that the company would have invested a little time into doing this themselves. They seem to be of the opinion that pregnant women will purchase this tea because it says “pregnancy” on the label. Maybe that works?
The main ingredient contained within Pregnancy Tea is organic raspberry leaf. This ingredient is frequently found in pregnancy teas as many people believe that it can help to regulate your labour by toning the muscles of your uterus. A 2001 study by Simpson et al found that those women who consumed raspberry leaf tea while pregnant saw an average shortening of second stage labour by 9 minutes [1]. A 1999 study found that taking raspberry leaf led to a reduction in the likelihood of needing a caesarean section [2]. However, research conducted by the NHS has found no significant difference in length of labour between those who took and those who did not take raspberry leaf [3].
As the NHS point out, taking raspberry leaf tea does not provide a clear benefit and the body is designed to “give birth without help” [3]. Taking raspberry leaf tea can cause moderate to severe Braxton Hicks contractions, which can be very unpleasant.
On balance, the benefits of taking raspberry leaf tea seem to be minimal and not worth bothering with. To see any benefit, you need to be consuming the tea frequently for several weeks, and all you can expect to gain is a few minutes less of labour. Granted, shortening labour may feel like a really important thing to do but considering the average labour time for new mums is around 8 hours we’re really talking peanuts.
Another ingredient is stinging nettle leaf, a common ingredient in most pregnancy teas. This is due to it containing high levels of vitamins A, C, and K, as well as iron, potassium, and calcium. On the other hand, WebMD advises that pregnant or breastfeeding women avoid stinging nettle because there is a lack of information about their safety [4].
To be fair to Traditional Medicinals, WebMD tends to play things extremely safe when it comes to pregnancy (and quite right too). The truth is that stinging nettle leaf is almost certainly safe to consume, and there do appear to be some nutritional benefits, though perhaps not enough to make it worthwhile?
Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea also contains a proprietary blend, this is where companies group a large amount of different supplement ingredients together. It allows them to mask the individual dosages of each ingredient. There are some practical reasons to do this, but mainly it is seen as a bad move in the industry. You’re basically hiding how much of each ingredient is really present in your supplement.
The proprietary blend contains a number of different ingredients, one of which is alfalfa leaf. We’ve struggled to see any potential benefit of alfalfa leaf, and WebMD actually recommends that you avoid it while pregnant as “there is some evidence that alfalfa may act like estrogen, and this might affect pregnancy” [5].
The proprietary blend also contains rose hip, which doesn’t appear to produce any pregnancy-specific benefits but is fairly harmless. There is also fennel, which may aid breast milk production, but again, this is not a post-pregnancy supplement so we’re struggling to see why it has been included.
Bottom Line: We always try to be completely fair when reviewing supplements, but that does not mean we pull our punches. Traditional Medicinals’ Organic Pregnancy Tea does not appear to have any significant evidence that it can improve your pregnancy experience. While it is unlikely to be dangerous, we do note that many of the ingredients have been certified “Possibly Unsafe” for pregnant women on WebMD.
The Pros & Cons Of Traditional Medicinals Pregnancy Tea
Here are two lists, one of which outlines everything that we like about Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea, and one that outlines everything we don’t like:
The Pros
- Raspberry leaf has been shown to marginally reduce labour time
- Raspberry leaf may reduce the likelihood for caesarean section
- Stinging nettle leaf has many healthy vitamins and minerals
The Cons
- Benefits are hardly significant
- Several ingredients are marked as “potentially unsafe” by WebMD
- Use of a proprietary blend masks ingredients dosage
What Are The Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea Ingredients?
Due to the use of a proprietary blend, it is impossible to give you the correct dosage for each ingredient. Only two of the ingredients have that information.
One Serving Contains: Organic Raspberry Leaf 700mg, Organic Stinging Nettle Leaf 175mg, and Proprietary Blend 875mg (Spearmint Leaf, Bitter Fennel Fruit, Rose Hip, Alfalfa Leaf, Lemon Verbena Leaf).
Is Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea Safe?
None of the ingredients included are dangerous provided you are a woman in full health, though we would absolutely advise you to seek your doctor’s permission before taking this (or any) supplement.
Is Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea Suitable For Everyone?
We’re coming to a crossroads here, is this pregnancy tea suitable for pregnant women or not? On the one hand, there are some small benefits, though the likelihood of you noticing anything is minimal. On the other hand, several ingredients are deemed unsuitable for pregnancy.
Fennel fruit, alfalfa, lemon verbena, and stinging nettle are unsuitable for consumption during pregnancy as their safety has not been determined. While rose hip has been associated with gastrointestinal side effects [6].
But many of these ingredients are often consumed by pregnant women, and some have been for hundreds of years. It could be possible that WebMD is being overly cautious here. This is common when it comes to pregnancy.
Are There Any Traditional Medicinals Pregnancy Tea Reviews From Customers?
There have been several reviews of Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea by customers on Amazon.com. Across 327 customer reviews the tea is averaging 4.1 stars out of 5, with 69% of reviews being five-star.
“I’m hooked on this tea, it’s part of my morning routine and really works”
“According to my OB this tea is safe for expecting mothers and they have never seen a miscarriage caused from consuming it”
“Honestly cannot get past the taste and have not been able to drink more than half a cup”
Our Final Verdict On Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea
Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea is probably safe, despite what WebMD says about some of the ingredients. Whether it is effective is another matter. Maybe it’s just us, but there really doesn’t seem to be any clear consensus on what it does! The reviews all say how great it is, but not what it did. There doesn’t appear to be much science verifying the claims that it can help improve labour, and many consumers have complained about the taste.
If you want to try it then give it a go, but maybe ask your doctor first. They will be able to give you advise that is specific to your needs. But the real question here is, would taking this supplement help you? The answer is, probably not.