General Perspectives of Homeopathic Medicine During the First and Second Trimesters of Pregnancy

Homoeopathy is a system of medicine developed by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German Physician who lived between 1755 and 1843. Homoeopathy is a scientific method of treatment that is based on the application of the law of similars and potentization. The law of similars states that “a substance that causes, in a healthy person. Symptoms similar to those of a disease state can cure a sick person in that similar disease state”. The Latin phrase Similia Similibus Curentur that means “likes cured by likes”. This law of similars is based on years of observation and a number of discoveries and reflections found throughout the history of medicine, long before Hahnemann’s time. Even Hippocrates, the “father of Medicine”, had stated that cure could be achieved through the action of “Similars”. Hahnemann first experienced the law of similars while translating a textbook of medicine in which it was reported that Cinchona bark was used to cure malaria. He decided to test Hippocrates’ theory by taking some Cinchona bark himself, and found that as a healthy person, he actually developed symptoms very similar to those of malaria. This led Hahnemann to develop a hypothesis that Cinchona appears to cure malaria because it produces the symptoms of malaria in healthy people. Potentization on the other hand is a process by which serial dilutions along with succession or vigorous shaking is applied to prepare homeopathic remedies. This process of alternative dilution and shaking is thought to remove the toxic side effects of the main component of the drug to have a deeper curative property of the drug.