Table 4.
Perceived effectiveness and safety: fenugreek as a sole ingredient.
| Participants | Perceived Effectiveness by User | Adverse Effects Observed |
|---|---|---|
| BW 1 | Effective, Onset of effect: Within one day | Body odour in mother and infant |
| Indicator: Breast engorgement | ||
| “So if I have fenugreek tonight, tomorrow morning then I will have very very, what’s the term, engorged breast, a lot of milk, and I found that it was quite instantaneous. Sometimes I even had to express the milk to relieve [the engorgement].The effect was that obvious and instantaneous.” | ||
| BW 3 | Effective, Onset of effect: Within 4–6 h | Sweet-smelling body odour which seemed to be dose-dependent. Odour was absent at 1 or 2 capsules (1–2 g) daily, but present at 6 capsules (6 g) daily. |
| Indicators: Breast engorgement, infant’s perceived satisfaction, increased volume of expressed milk | ||
| “…I can feel I am full and uncomfortable which normally doesn’t happen till 6am in the morning. Even before feeding, I could feel my breasts so full…it’s just fuller and just quicker feed, the let down is just quicker, there’s more there… I will express 240 mL (before using fenugreek), after using the herb, it will be around 270 mL. At night normally would be 40 mL, but I can express 80 to 90 mL at night after using fenugreek.” “…the duration was shorter, quicker, because at night, it will be 15 min each breast for newborn. Otherwise, it will take 30 min each breast…. When I had it [fenugreek] will just be 15 min each side and she will be quite happy, obviously shorter feeding made her less grumpy. It’s just easier feeding, I think she is fulfilled quicker, the flow was obviously quicker, so it was just like drink, drink, drink, bang!” | ||
| BW 6 | Effective, Onset of effect: Within one day or less than 24 h | None observed |
| Indicators: Breast engorgement, infant’s perceived satisfaction and feeding behaviour, infant is putting on w eight | ||
| “When my milk comes down, I can see he is really swallowing like a lot, and it will come down more quickly, so it will take less time for all to happen, he feed probably a bit longer sometimes, and that really gulping sort of feeling, seems like a large volume he is getting, compared to before.” | ||
| BW 10 | Unable to judge, was using Motilium®, and top-up with infant’s formula | Slight headache |
| “I have no idea. Only because I have limited supply to start with, so I don’t know if it is better or worse since being on it. Same as for Motilium®, I have been on it since day dot, but I don’t know. They tell me that I have a good supply considering the surgery that I had, but I really don’t know.” | ||
| BW 12 | Effective, Onset of effect: 6–8 h | Slight body odour underarm |
| Indicators: Breast engorgement, quicker and more active feeding session, infant’s perceived satisfaction and feeding behaviour, longer interval between each feed | ||
| “I could feel that my breasts were very full, and I had to feed her immediately to relief the swelling.” | ||
| “Like if she has had a feed around 4 pm, before that she would cry for a feed about 3 h later, but after taking the tablet, sometimes she can wait till around 8 or 9 before needing to have another feed. I suppose that could be related to her growing up too, you know, when little they tend to feed more, every 2 or 3 h, then slowly become 3 or 4 h.” | ||
| BW 13 | Effective, Onset of effect: 12 h | None observed |
| Indicators: Breast engorgement, decreased number of feeds per day | ||
| “I have found that since using it myself, that I do feel like my milk supply has been kept quite high because of that.” | ||
| “It has decreased the number of times I feed a day, probably initially because he was getting as much as what was there but it wasn’t enough, so he would be hungry after one or two hours. Whereas now, because he might be getting more at the first feed, he might not feed to feed again after 3 or 4 h.” | ||
| BW 14 | Effective (with higher dose of 6 g daily), Onset of effect: 4–5 h | None at low dose (1 capsule daily), body odour after taking 6 capsules daily |
| Indicators: Breast engorgement, ability to express further 50 mL after feeding, quicker and smoother feeding session | ||
| “I remember increasing the dosage in the afternoon after lunch and immediately that night I felt that my breasts were so full, they were about to leak I think.” | ||
| BW 15 | Effective, Onset of effect: 2–3 days | None observed |
| Indicators: Breast engorgement, increased in volume of expressed milk by 50–100 mL, leaking milk | ||
| “I was leaking milk during the night. I would wake up with a wet bra in the morning.” | ||
| BW 18 | Slightly Effective at low dosage (1 tds), however unable to judge for high dosage (6 d) due to adverse effect, Onset of effect: One day | Persistent diarrhoea, therefore ceased usage |
| Indicator: Breast engorgement | ||
| “Initially with taking three a day, I think it did make some difference, but I would say it still wasn’t enough or ideal. I decided to increase the dosage to six a day. I can’t really tell if taking six a day made any difference because I stopped using it immediately after a day because of diarrhoea and I was too scared to go back to it because now I know that my body doesn’t agree with it. Maybe if my body could tolerate the high dose, it would have helped.” | ||
| BW 19 | Effective, Onset of effect: 1–2 days | None observed |
| Indicators: Breast engorgement, infant’s perceived satisfaction and feeding behavior | ||
| “I just felt that my breasts were a lot fuller and feeding was quicker and smooth because she isn’t crying. That’s why I am thinking, maybe it is because I have more milk, and she’s getting enough, that’s why she is more satisfied.” |