Toking up during pregnancy sounds like a hella
chill way to stop that morning sickness in
it's tracks, not to mention the ankle and
lower-back pain; but are there side-effects
for the bun in the oven?
Howdy preggo people and their partners and
pals, Trace here proffering for DNews.
Pregnancy comes with a lot of physiological
changes.
Some women have problems with severe vomiting,
nausea, lack of appetite, and pain during
pregnancy; one study found more than 21-percent
of women experience severe symptoms!
A quick search will bring up stories of women
who choose to use cannabis medicinally to
help keep food down -- which, they argue,
ultimately helps the fetus.
Other women choose cannabis over other drugs
to manage their pains.
As of June of 2016, weed is legal for either
medicinal or recreational use (or both) in
half of the states plus the District of Columbia.
It's now a billion dollar business in Colorado
alone and is, more generally, the most used
"illicit" drug in the U.S.
Because it has never been legal on such a
scale, people are getting curious about when
it's okay to toke up, and when it's not; and
slowly (as it often does) science is weighing
in.
According to a new study in Biological Psychiatry,
as much as 13-percent of women worldwide use
cannabis during pregnancy.
Pregnancy is already rife with rules, restrictions
and requirements for mothers, but now thanks
to this study, there's another: maybe don't
toke up when pregnant.
Their research compared children who'd been
exposed to tobacco while in the womb, and
children who'd been exposed to cannabis while
in the womb.
The results showed children exposed to cannabis
had thicker frontal cortices.
Though, to be honest, it's not clear what
that means.
Some scientists have associated thicker frontal
cortices with higher intelligence, and better
executive attention, while others have associated
it with lower intelligence in youth and then
higher in middle age.
And still others warn that assuming physical
structures tell us anything about intelligence
is akin to phrenology -- the study of bumps
on the scalp to tell the future.
Obviously, this isn't the only study on weed,
women and wombs.
An oft-cited study from 1994 of only 42 Jamaican
children found no measurable difference in
the children of pot-smoking moms and non-pot-smoking
moms that couldn't be explained by socioeconomic
status.
But other studies have shown newborns of toking
moms tremble more, have different responses
to stimuli, and have neurological deficiencies
in areas of problem solving, memory, and attention.
The World Health Organization says, "Children
exposed to cannabis in utero demonstrate impaired
attention, learning and memory, impulsivity
and behavioral problems and higher likelihood
of using cannabis when they mature."
And even though marijuana can help appetite,
nausea, and vomiting for cancer patients,
it's important to mention, some states will
remove children from parents if the newborn
tests positive for THC in their stool.
Obviously, we can not and would not call any
of this "medical advice"; we're not doctors.
But the American Medical Association, the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the
World Health Organization all recommend against
preggo pot use.
Regardless, as the nation's grip on control
over marijuana loosens and it becomes legal,
decriminalized, or openly accessible in more
places, women may choose to self-medicate
with marijuana for pregnancy-associated complications.
And because the science is still ongoing,
no one can provide these women with the true
risks of that behavior, which preliminary
findings seem to indicate do exist.
More research is desperately needed, like,
yesterday.
Unfortunately, there are so many confounding
variables and unknowns in pregnancy, for now,
true scientific conclusions are caught in
a bit of a purple haze.
Look, sometimes, when people get a little
weed and then they get a little frisky, what
if you're pregnant?
Can you
||whisper||
still have sex?
SURE!!
Find out why it's a-OK right here with my
girl Natalia!
Are you worried about a pregnancy diet?
Drugs?
Exercise?
Sleeping?
What's tickling your curiosity about the human
experience?
