August 29, 2024 – For almost half a century, we now have known precisely the risks of alcohol while pregnant. Fetal alcohol syndrome emerged within the Seventies as a risk for youngsters exposed to alcohol within the womb, and since then many more women have abstained from drinking alcohol. However, the identical can't be said for marijuana, and actually, recent research shows that a surprising number of ladies use it while pregnant.
In one Analysis of over 90,000 Umbilical cord samples collected within the last 5 years, researchers from National Medical Services Labs, a provider of laboratory testing services In Horsham, PA, found that nearly a fifth of those samples were positive for cannabis, one other name for marijuana.
“More and more states are legalizing cannabis so that it is more freely available and not as stigmatized as it once was,” he said Kari Midthun, PhD, aforensic Toxicologist at NMS Labs.
Marijuana use is increasing across all demographics, and pregnant women are one other group affected by the brand new popularity. Out of 1992 to 2022The rate of every day marijuana use within the US increased 15-fold. Additionally, many consider cannabis to be natural and secure while pregnant. They could also use it to treat prenatal symptoms reminiscent of morning sickness in addition to anxiety and depression, he said Alexandria Reinhart, at assistant laboratory director at NMS Labs.
The Maternal Risks of Marijuana
But as its use increases, so does our understanding of the risks to pregnant women and their unborn babies, he said Kelly C. Young-Wolff, PhD, MPH, clinical psychologist and research scientist at Kaiser Permanente.
Wolff's research, which focused on maternal health, found that those that used marijuana in early pregnancy had a 17% increased risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension, an 8% increased risk of preeclampsia, and a 19% increased risk of have had placental abruption – a serious complication that happens when the placenta separates from the uterine wall before birth – in comparison with women who haven't taken the substance.
“There is increasing evidence that cannabis use during pregnancy is not safe,” Young-Wolff said. She said patients should check with their doctors about safer alternatives depending on the prenatal or overlapping symptoms they're experiencing.
The effects of prenatal marijuana use on the fetus
Marijuana use while pregnant also poses risks to infants exposed to it within the womb once it crosses the blood-brain barrier. The commonest concern is low birth weight, he said Torri Metz, MD, amaternalFGeneral medicine expert on the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City.
“People who use cannabis tend to have smaller babies, and that comes up again and again in the published literature,” she said.
In fact, the journal published an evaluation of 16 studies involving nearly 60,000 women JAMA Obstetrics and Gynecologyfound an increased risk of preterm birth and reduced birth weight in newborns of ladies who used marijuana while pregnant.
The long-term risks are harder to find out because so much can occur after a toddler is born that may result in health problems in a while. But some research indicates problems in brain development because of this of marijuana use, he said Kyle Walsh, PhD, an aassociate Professor of Neurosurgery and Pathology at Duke University in Durham, NC.
“It is associated with a higher risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly ADHD and also autism,” he said.
And maybe even more concerning, Walsh said, is a number of the research his lab has worked on that links marijuana use while pregnant to some types of childhood cancer. A study written by him and published within the journal Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers and preventionfound that prenatal marijuana use is related to the next risk of central nervous system tumors, including a certain kind of childhood brain tumor and a kind of eye tumor.
What's interesting in regards to the results is that the cancers are linked to neuron precursors within the early brain, Walsh said. This implies that unlike alcohol, which poses the best developmental risk within the second trimester, marijuana appears to cause probably the most harm early in development, before many ladies even realize they're pregnant.
Walsh said the fetus's neurological development begins between 12 and 14 weeks of pregnancy and lots of women may use marijuana until they realize they're pregnant, which is usually too late. “In a sense, the bus had already left the station at that point,” he said.
By the time women stop using marijuana, in some cases the damage has already been done. For this reason, women need to think about marijuana use in the event that they try to conceive or in the event that they think they may turn out to be pregnant, especially considering that that is the case 42% of pregnancies within the United States are unplanned.
Does the kind of use play a task?
When it involves the way in which marijuana is used — smoking versus edible sources, for instance — research has not yet determined whether one or the opposite is an even bigger problem, Walsh said. But ultimately, the body has to process the marijuana regardless of the way it is ingested: it enters the bloodstream and crosses the placenta, potentially affecting the mother and unborn child.
We don't yet know whether products based on cannabidiol (CBD), a compound in cannabis that doesn't contain THC, are also dangerous. “But in the coming years we will probably also deal with this,” said Metz.
She said there may be a scarcity of education about cannabis use while pregnant and lots of of her patients are unaware of the risks it may well pose to their unborn child. Patients often use it for pregnancy-related symptoms, and doctors must make their patients aware of it safer alternatives.
For example, vitamin B6 supplements and over-the-counter medications reminiscent of doxylamine (Unisom) might be used for morning sickness that accompanies nausea and prenatal sleep disorders. Additionally, depression and anxiety might be treated with a mix of therapy and certain prescription medications as a substitute of marijuana.
The bottom line, Metz said, is that doctors must make certain their patients understand the risks so that they can stop marijuana use immediately. Although the research will not be as concrete as alcohol consumption while pregnant, researchers consider this shall be the case in the approaching years.
“Most people stop taking it once they realize the risks. That’s why an open conversation with patients is so important,” said Metz.