Vitamin C?

Can vitamin C and parsley cause miscarriages?

• A strange question I know. Someone on a board I frequent has announced she intends to induce a miscarriage: "I'm inducing a miscarriage[sp] today because I don't have the means or the time to go out to the clinic and get a medical abortion and I trust my herbalist way more than some random doctor. I bought all the stuff i need [super heavy duty pads, midol(extra strength), parsley, vitamin c etc] I'm just waiting on my infusion and then I will start to take the Vitamin and put the parsley together tomorrow. Blood is the only thingi'm worried about, I'm probably just going to sit in the tub when I feel it coming on... I' worried but relieved" When I asked her to clarify what herbs her herbalist was using (since many such herbs are extremely dangerous) she said: "vitamin c without rose hip and all those extras and parsley. its actually very effective." This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, would vitamin C and parsley cause a miscarriage? I've never heard of this. I thought vitamin C was a water soluble vitamin and would pass straight through if you took in more than your body could handle, and I can't remember ever hearing anyone advise pregnant women to avoid parsley. Quite aside from the ethics of the situation (which no doubt many answers will bring up), I'm curious to know if she's putting herself in serious danger. Obviously I can't stop her from doing it, but if she is in serious danger I can at least inform her of this.

• Answer:

  No, parsley and vitamin C will not induce a miscarriage. The idea of using parsley is that in olden days it was used as an emmenagogue to relax the cervix. I suggest you encourage this women to seek medical help. If she is trying to induce a miscarriage with non-conventional methods, she could potentially cause herself serious harm and the unborn child. Edit Herbalists are not medical Doctors. Obviously you can't force this women to listen to sensible advise and setting all personal feelings aside about what she is attempting to do, the main concern here is her welfare, which could be in danger if she allows some Charlatan to give her god only knows what ( parsley and vitamin C alone will unlikely do anything.) I'm concerned what else he is planning to give her.