During her pregnancy, Stacey never drank alcohol or had a cigarette. But nearly every day, then 24, she smoked marijuana.<\/p>\n
With her fianc\u00e9\u2019s blessing, she began taking a few puffs in her first trimester to quell morning sickness before going to work at a sandwich shop. When sciatica made it unbearable to stand during her 12-hour shifts, she discreetly vaped marijuana oil on her lunch break.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t necessarily say, \u2018Go smoke a pound of pot when you\u2019re pregnant,\u2019\u201d said Stacey, now a stay-at-home mother in Deltona, Fla., who asked that her full name be withheld because street-bought marijuana is illegal in Florida. \u201cIn moderation, it\u2019s O.K.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many pregnant women, particularly younger ones, seem to agree, a recent federal survey shows. As states legalize marijuana or its medical use, expectant mothers are taking it up in increasing numbers \u2014 another example of the many ways in which acceptance of marijuana has outstripped scientific understanding of its effects on human health.<\/p>\n
Often pregnant women presume that cannabis has no consequences for developing infants. But preliminary research suggests otherwise: Marijuana\u2019s main psychoactive ingredient \u2014 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC \u2014 can cross the placenta to reach the foetus, experts say, potentially harming brain development, cognition and birth weight. THC can also be present in breast milk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an increased perception of the safety of cannabis use, even in pregnancy, without data to say it\u2019s actually safe,\u201d said Dr. Torri Metz, an obstetrician at Denver Health Medical Center who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. Ten percent of her patients acknowledge recent marijuana use. In the federal survey, published online in December, almost 4 percent of mothers-to-be said they had used marijuana in the past month in 2014, compared with 2.4 percent in 2002. (By comparison, roughly 9 percent of pregnant women ages 18 to 44 acknowledge using alcohol in the previous month.)<\/p>\n
Stacey\u2019s son just had his first birthday. He\u2019s walking, talking and breast-feeding, and she isn\u2019t worried about his development. Credit Jennifer Sens for The New York Times<\/p>\n
Young mothers-to-be were particularly likely to turn to marijuana: Roughly 7.5 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds said they had used pot in the past month in 2014, compared with 2 percent of women ages 26 to 44.<\/p>\n
Evidence on the effects of prenatal marijuana use is still limited and sometimes contradictory. Some of the most extensive data come from two sets of researchers, in Pittsburgh and in Ottawa, who have long studied children exposed to THC in the womb.<\/p>\n
In Pittsburgh, 6-year-olds born to mothers who had smoked one joint or more daily in the first trimester showed a decreased ability to understand concepts in listening and reading. At age 10, children exposed to THC in utero were more impulsive than other children and less able to focus their attention.<\/p>\n
Most troubling, children of mothers who used marijuana heavily in the first trimester had lower scores in reading, math and spelling at age 14 than their peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrenatal exposure can affect the adolescent pretty significantly,\u201d said Dr. Lauren M. Jansson, the director of paediatrics at the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n
Several studies have found changes in the brains of foetuses, 18 to 22 weeks old, linked to maternal marijuana use. In male foetuses that were exposed, for instance, researchers have noted abnormal function of the amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven early in development, marijuana is changing critical circuits and neurotransmitting receptors,\u201d said Dr. Yasmin Hurd, a neuroscientist and the director of the addiction center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan. \u201cThose are important for regulation of emotions and reward, even motor function and cognition.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is already well documented that the developing brains of teenagers can be altered with regular marijuana use, even eventually reducing I.Q.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effects are not dramatic, but that doesn\u2019t mean they are not important,\u201d said Jodi Gilman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who studies adolescent users of cannabis. \u201cIt could make the difference between getting an A and getting a B.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could imagine that a similar subtle effect may be present in those who were exposed prenatally to marijuana,\u201d she added. The American Academy of Paediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists both advise against prenatal cannabis use because of its links to cognitive impairment and academic underachievement. But many state and federal agencies avoid the topic.<\/p>\n
Of five federal agencies, only the National Institute on Drug Abuse had any information about prenatal marijuana use on its website as of last February, according to a study published online in December in the journal Substance Abuse. Only 10 state health departments did. Until recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think public health officials should be alarming people,\u201d said Marian Jarlenski, the study\u2019s lead author and an assistant professor at the University Of Pittsburgh Graduate School Of Public Health. \u201cThey just have to say, \u2018There have been studies done, and there is some risk.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, C.D.C. officials expressed concern about memory and attention problems among children exposed to THC in utero.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile current evidence on health consequences is inconsistent, some studies have found risks associated with marijuana use during pregnancy, such as low birth weight or preterm birth,\u201d the agency said. Dr. Marie McCormick, a paediatrician and the chairwoman of a new report on cannabis from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, said smoking cannabis \u201cdoes confer, in terms of birth weight, the same risk as cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the gathering evidence is reassuring. So far, prenatal cannabis exposure does not appear to be linked to obvious birth defects. \u201cThat\u2019s why some providers and lay<\/p>\n
people alike think there\u2019s no effect,\u201d said Dr. Erica Wymore, a neonatologist at Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado. But she warned, \u201cJust because they don\u2019t have a major birth defect or overt withdrawal symptoms doesn\u2019t mean the baby\u2019s neurological development is not impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most research in this area was done when the drug was far less potent. Marijuana had 12 percent THC in 2014, while in 1995 it was just 4 percent, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those really good earlier studies on marijuana effects aren\u2019t telling us what we need to know now about higher concentration levels,\u201d said Therese Grant, an epidemiologist and director of the University of Washington\u2019s foetal alcohol and drug unit. \u201cWe need to do a whole lot more research now.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are two additional problems with studies of maternal cannabis use. Research is often based on reports by pregnant women \u2014 instead of, say, tests of urine or the umbilical cord \u2014 and they consistently underreport their use. (Researchers know of underreporting because samples reveal discrepancies.) And pregnant women who roll joints also tend to smoke tobacco or drink alcohol; it can be hard to tease out the risks of cannabis itself.<\/p>\n
Few realize that THC is stored in fat and therefore can linger in a mother\u2019s body for weeks, if not months. It\u2019s not known whether the foetus\u2019s exposure is limited to the hours a woman feels high.<\/p>\n
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists advises clinicians to ask pregnant women about marijuana use and to urge them to quit. To find out whether that\u2019s happening, Dr. Judy Chang, an obstetrician-gynaecologist at the University of Pittsburgh, and her colleagues recorded more than 450 first visits with pregnant patients.<\/p>\n
Medical staff were more likely to warn patients that child protective services might be called if they used marijuana, the researchers found, than to advise them of potential risks. When mothers-to-be admitted to marijuana use, almost half of obstetric clinicians did not respond at all.\u00a0 Pregnant women aren\u2019t eager to discuss it, either, because they are afraid of legal repercussions or a lecture. Depression, anxiety, stress, pain, nausea and vomiting were the most common reasons women reported using marijuana in a 2014 survey of low-income mothers getting federal nutrition help in Colorado. Roughly 6 percent were pot users; a third were pregnant. \u201cWomen are thinking of this as medical marijuana in that they are treating some condition,\u201d said Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute who researches substance abuse in pregnancy.\u00a0 \u201cIf you\u2019re going to consider it like medicine,\u201d she said, \u201cthen treat it like medicine and talk to your doctor about it.\u201d Stacey\u2019s son just had his first birthday. He\u2019s walking, talking and breast-feeding, and she isn\u2019t worried about his development.\u00a0 She still smokes pot \u2014 indeed, her son plays on a rug emblazoned with a marijuana leaf. But the severe cramps that plagued her before pregnancy are easing now.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t have to smoke as much anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Source: https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/02\/02\/health\/marijuana-and-pregnancy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During her pregnancy, Stacey never drank alcohol or had a cigarette. But nearly every day, then 24, she smoked marijuana. With her fianc\u00e9\u2019s blessing, she began taking a few puffs in her first trimester to quell morning sickness before going to work at a sandwich shop. When sciatica made it unbearable to stand during her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,41,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-marijuana","category-drug-use-effects-on-foetus","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}