The Truth About Marijuana, Pregnancy & Progeny

The topic of cannabis use in pregnancy and its effects on newborns is confusing, controversial, and cognitive.

Confusing because medical marijuana is legal in all 50 states of America and, probably grossly underestimated, about 2.5% of pregnant women admit to using medicinal cannabis in the United States for management of pregnancy-induced nausea, vomiting and stress.

Controversial because there is evidence that women who use marijuana during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to babies with lower birth weight, delayed commencement of breathing, an increase in features similar to those found in fetal alcohol syndrome, exaggerated startle response, tremors, poorer eye-sight, poorer ability to adapt to new aspects of the environment, and a hole in the heart. Most North American studies have shown marijuana use can also cause developmental problems in newborns.

Cognitive because use of marijuana is associated with restrictions in growth of the fetus, miscarriage, and cognitive deficits in offspring based on animal studies – there is limited or no evidence to back up the claims in humans.

However, here is an on-field study nobody wants to talk about. In the late 1960s, grad student Melanie Dreher was chosen by her professors to perform an ethnographic study on marijuana use in Jamaica, a culture that policed its own cannabis intake and considered its use spiritual, to observe and document its usage and its consequences among pregnant women.

Using the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (also known as the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale), Dreher studied 24 Jamaican infants exposed to marijuana prenatally and 20 infants that were not exposed. The results showed no negative impact on the children, instead they seemed to excel. Her findings upset many including her funders, the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“March of Dimes was supportive. But it was clear that NIDA was not interested in continuing to fund a study that didn’t produce negative results. I was told not to resubmit. We missed an opportunity to follow the study through adolescence and through adulthood,” Dreher commented.

So does marijuana have a direct health effect on pregnancy?

It is unlikely that cannabis causes embryonic or fetal malformations. There are inconsistent epidemiological data on its effect on birth weight. No influences on physical fetal development in children born to chronic cannabis users have been reported. There is currently no pharmacologic therapy that has been studied for cannabis exposure in utero or withdrawal in the neonate. There is currently no strong evidence linking an increased rate of miscarriages or congenital abnormalities to in utero cannabis exposure.

Dreher, now Dean of Nursing at Rush University, feels that despite marijuana’s proven medicinal effects, particularly for pregnant women, medical professionals do not support its use as they think it might damage their profession, prove the so-called researches wrong, and affect their careers.

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