Cannabis bruk på Gravida?
Hur påverkar Cannabis bruk gravida?
Lär ju vara skillnad på Rök och äta också.Någon som har info?
- 15 Replies
Nej, inte CB om man är gravid.
Just my two cents..
Må bäst…
Håller med stonErollEr. Gravida kvinnor ska inte nyttja några droger alls, allt annat är fullkomlig galenskap. Tycker inte att nån vidare förklaring behövs…
Information var det, inte tyckande. 🙄
I förhållande till de droger som används inom förlossningsvården idag så är Cannabis rena rama barnmaten. Cannabis kan användas som smärtstillande vid förlossning och hjälpa mot morgon-illamående under graviditeten. Illamående och kräkningar under den första halvan av graviditeten är mycket vanliga. Det är alltså inte bara för nöjes skull som gravida kvinnor röker på utan det är frågan om självmedicinering.
Vad som också kan vara av intresse är att anandamid, kroppens egen version av cannabis, fyrdubblas under graviditeten. Vidare har äggledarna kroppens högsta koncentration av CB-receptorer och bröstmjölksproduktionen kontrolleras av cannabionider. Att cannabis hjälper vid menstruationssmärtor och stimulerar bröstmjölksproduktionen är ju inte någon nyhet för oss kvinnor men nu vet vi alltså varför.
Jag kan inte låta bli att undra om ni killar skulle haft samma uppfattning om ni själva var kvinnor. Inte nyttja droger alls? Ingen lustgas eller ryggbedövning under förlossningen heller eller? Har ni nån koll alls på vad en graviditet och förlossning innebär? I så fall hoppas jag att ni har den goda smaken att själva avstå från allt vad droger heter den dag er partner blir gravid om ni tänkt ställa krav på drogfrihet på den blivande modern. 😈
@cannabis culture wrote:
Pregnancy and Pot
by “Dr Kate” (01 Sept, 1998)Cannabis can be a special friend to pregnant women in times of need
In the 5 years I have been practising as a midwife, many women have asked my advice on how to have the best possible pregnancy, labour and birth.
Common-sense tells the intelligent lady the answer: drink lots of clean water, eat plenty of fresh, nutritious food, get regular exercise, and keep calm, balanced, and centered. These conditions provide the ideal environment for the growth of a beautiful child, and contribute to an excellent chance for a natural, healthy birth.
Most women know they should avoid drugs in general, as well as additives, chemicals, cleaners, etc. But what about pot? Where does the marijuana herb fit in to pregnancy?
Pot can be safely used during pregnancy, and can help with several of the discomforts/problems associated therewith – a fact little known by the medical community, and even much of the herbalist community.
Pot for nausea
Many women find out they are pregnant when they start to throw up in the morning, or any time at all. The nausea invades and takes over so completely, that some women give in to it, and are not able to eat or drink anything at all. In extreme cases they are put on intravenous feeding for the duration of their pregnancies.
Other women turn to drugs to quell the waves of nausea that threaten them constantly during the first months, or even the whole nine! With nausea that bad, anything is worth a try. That is how the thalidomide disaster happened – it was touted as an anti-nausea drug, pregnant women scooped it up and then had deformed babies as a result.
Instead of dangerous pharmaceuticals, surely it is worth trying a natural herb that has never harmed anyone. From the reports of my clients, friends, and contacts on the internet, using marijuana has helped women with severe morning-sickness to overcome the terrible problem. In fact, I have not heard of anyone who has tried it say that it has not worked for them.
Cannabis the balance bringer
The many different active ingredients contained in the cannabis plant work together to put the female reproductive system in sync with the other glands and organs of the body. This is defined in the herbal textbooks as a “female corrective – an emmenogogue herb”. These types of herbs are special friends to women, because they bring the feminine reproductive system into the correct balance, which definitely helps her pregnancy, and state of mind in general.
Ladies who are out of sync have lots of emotional upsets too, because the hormones are battling instead of complimenting one another. Just a couple of puffs of cannabis, and those emotions are under control, the mother-to-be happy and smiling.
Food & Love
Pregnant women need to eat quite often to feed their babies. Most women these days do not eat enough food, and that is the biggest cause of low birth weight babies. Many infants are malnourished in the womb, as their mothers are busy, fearful of gaining weight, and not knowledgable about nutrition and its importance to their growing babe. Stopping to take a few puffs, relax, and have a snack is one of the best things they can do, as long as the snack is fruits and veggies and whole grains, not twinkies and big macs.
Cannabis can help to take the focus off of the outside world and place it right in the centre of what’s going on in the body now. This means that the sensitivity to every little flutter and kick can be even more intense, the connection to what’s going on with the baby more aware and in tune.
Cannabis is also a great help to the expectant couple, to keep them bonded and lighten some moments that might otherwise be stressful and strain their relationship. I suggest that if they are drifting into an argument, tired, or cranky with aching muscles: just have a few puffs together, rub each other out (body massage) get some yummy aromatherapy going, have some good sex, then a good night’s sleep. Everyone will feel better in the morning, guaranteed.
A smoking labour?
Many clients, friends and neighbors have called or written to ask about using pot in labour – good idea or bad?
The truth is: usually bad. Labour is like running a marathon – you need all your physical resources, plus the ones you never knew you had. Most of you know that pot is not something that enhances performance where physical exertion is demanded. This is also the case with labour.
The other important reason not to indulge while in labour is that getting high intensifies the sensations felt by the body. If those sensations are painful and too much cannabis is taken, the contractions can become so intensified that the woman is almost overwhelmed by the pain, shaking and trembling. I’ve seen it happen.
On the other hand, there is a situation during labour that cannabis helps. Here’s how:
The way to help labour go smoothly is to stay relaxed and keep the energy level up with easily utilized foods and drink.Yet there is a certain type of woman who is anything but relaxed, and as labour progresses, instead of “getting into her body”, she almost leaves it, or wishes she could. She stalls her labour, not allowing it to happen to her on a subconcious level. It’s a self-defense mechanism: labor hurts, so she’s not going to let it happen.
This type of refusal to go-with-the-flow can often be cured instantly and miraculously by just one puff of quality pot. Only a small amount is needed to make the mind-body connection, and no more. In tincture form take three to five drops under the tongue. The lady does not get too high and tired, but gets into her body and its task, enabling her to work with it to affect the birth of her child.
An admission of harmlessness
Marijuana has many uses, and is a special friend to women in their times of need. Used carefully and properly, this good herb is a blessing, and nothing to fear at all.
In the 1983 medical textbook Handbook of Maternal Newborn Nursing the “drugs of abuse during pregnancy” are listed, with the complications they cause. Next to cannabis, it says: “None known”. Small print, but yet another admission of harmlessness.
We knew it already, didn’t we?
Joint, Tea or Tincture?
Marijuana can be smoked, eaten, or taken in tincture form. The quickest acting is the smoked, often with only a couple of puffs necessary to ease pain or quell nausea. Tincture enters the blood stream from the many blood vessels in and around the stomach, so it is quite quick, but less immediate than smoking. Eating a brownie takes the longest to come into full bloom, but should last longer too.
A drawback to eating is the tendency to get too stoned, because the brownies or whatever are so yummy that you can’t eat just one. Next thing you know, colours are melting, husband talking in numbers…
Dr Kate can be reached by email at: [email protected].
Cannababies
by Reverend Damuzi (05 Jul, 2005)Cannabis and pregnancy
Birth by cannabis
Kelly sat propped by pillows, exhausted, shaking with each contraction. She’d been in labor for several days, and she was nearing the end of her ability to cope.
Situations like this have been known to be life-threatening, but no one talked about that at the time because maintaining Kelly’s self-confidence was crucial. And so was the joint of fine, organic outdoor that was being rolled in the next room, grown lovingly by a trusted friend of the expectant mother.
When I first spoke to Kelly (not her real name), I was surprised by her openness. She was eight months pregnant, and said she was going to smoke cannabis during her labor “if necessary.” She hadn’t smoked recreationally for a decade, but was advised by her midwife that cannabis might be the answer for a stalled labor. Her last pregnancy had delivered a stillborn baby, in part because it had taken too long to deliver. She agreed to my presence on the condition that I not use her real name and because, she said, I’m a Reverend: I could perform last rights if her child didn’t make it this time.
A month later, while Kelly struggled to give birth, I asked Kelly’s midwife what gave her the idea that pot might be good for pregnant women. I was presented with Susun Weed’s book, Wise Woman’s Herbal for the Childbearing Year.1
In it, Weed advises that cannabis is an “oxytocic herb” that “can help relax the controlling mind and bring attention to the needs of the body, as well as strengthen the needed contractions.”1 Weed explains that cannabis, combined with hemostatic herbs like Witch Hazel or Lady’s Mantle, can also slow uterine hemorrhages after birth.2
I later learned that Susun Weed’s book is considered a core resource for anyone studying herbalism and women’s health today. Weed has written four books; her first, The Childbearing Year, is currently enjoying a monumental 29th printing.
Although Weed has forgone the acquisition of academic credentials, she has taught health care professionals at prestigious universities throughout the world, and is formally acknowledged as a leader in her field. She founded her own school of herbalism, regularly contributes to the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women’s Studies, is included in the Who’s Who of Intellectuals, was awarded the Twentieth Century Award for Achievement and was honored as an Outstanding Person of the 20th Century.
If anyone can be trusted to deliver the facts about cannabis and health, it is Susun Weed. For those still in doubt, her assertions about the herb’s powers are backed by literally thousands of years of use, observations and studies.
I put her important book down by an open window, where a cold wind reminded me that summer was nearly over. I considered the candle, book of prayers and anointing oil in my bag – my tools of final unction – and as my thoughts returned to Kelly’s ordeal, I couldn’t help but shiver at the thought that she and her baby might not survive.
When I returned to the room, Kelly was puffing languidly, with the help of an attendant who held her arm steady. Her smoky medicine drifted down to her side and was snatched up before it landed on a pillow. Almost miraculously, within a couple of minutes she was sitting up, and her birth partner was shaken awake from another dark corner of the room. She began breathing and the contractions came on more forcefully. Within an hour she delivered.
Afterwards she spoke about her experience.
“My birth was such a mystical experience after I smoked,” she enthused. “I started doing some real breathing, joining with my birth partner. I felt my chakras align with the Great Mother and with the baby. I had a prolapsed cervical lip, and the baby was turned sideways in the birth canal. I could suddenly feel it all inside me. So I did my own surgery. I reached in and pulled the cervical lip back and it dilated within seconds.
“Then I went outside and the sun was rising. I was staring into the sunlight, and in that moment I felt the burning of the so-called ‘ring of fire’ when your [vagina] is totally open. I was crowning for 15 minutes. If I was in any hospital they would have sliced me open! The next thing I know the baby was out of me and in my arms. My sweet little baby girl!”
Some might argue that it is always better to give birth in a hospital, with medical professionals available in case of emergency. Yet for those who wish to use a natural herb like cannabis during pregnancy, giving birth in a hospital can lead to persecution, imprisonment and having their baby taken away.
Shackled after birth
While Kelly held her newborn babe, saved by the grace of ganja, another mother was facing persecution for using med-pot while pregnant, thousands of kilometers away, in Texas.
Alma Baker had used the herb during her pregnancy, to treat nausea and increase her appetite. But shortly after she gave birth in Northwest Texas Hospital, she and her twin babies were drug tested. Both Baker and her children were found positive for cannabis. Under interrogation by police, she admitted to taking occasional tokes in her backyard, and was charged with trafficking to her fetuses.
The practice of drug testing pregnant moms without their consent was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 2001 after shocking allegations were raised against a state hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, where non-consentual drug testing was the norm since 1989. Some moms were arrested immediately after childbirth, shackled to the table while still bleeding, and subsequently dragged off to jail.
A class-action suit by some of these women overturned the practice in the US Supreme Court in 2001,3 but despite the court ruling, newborn babies in South Carolina are still routinely tested for the presence of banned drugs. If an infant tests positive, police are informed immediately, and the mother faces mandatory treatment or jail time. For example, in December 2004, a South Carolina judge sentenced Pamela Cruz-Reyes to four years in prison after she and her newborn both tested positive for cocaine.
Unlike the feisty South Carolina women who fought their charges, marijuana-smoking mother-of-twins Alma Baker plead guilty to the charges of trafficking to her fetuses last June, was fined $1,000, forced to take parenting classes and serve 250 hours of community service.
This punishment is a major drain on a new mother with two babies to care for, but still a lighter sentence than she might have gotten. Normally, trafficking in the state of Texas carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.4
Baker’s charges were based on a new Texas state law, the Prenatal Protection Act, which has women’s rights groups protesting. The law expands the definition of “individual” to include unborn children, and is based on a national policy drafted by George W Bush earlier in 2004 that similarly expands the definition. According to Republican spin doctors, the change was made so that medical coverage could be extended to the unborn child. The policy change was followed in April with the signing of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
The ACLU was one of the first organizations to recognize some of the dangers of the new federal policy. On the day of the act’s signing into law, Laura Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, railed against the policy’s duplicity in a press release.
“Congress could have chosen to protect pregnant women from violence without assaulting reproductive rights, but it failed to do so,” she said. “There is little doubt that this law is a thinly veiled attempt to create fetal rights and undermine reproductive freedom.”
What the ACLU missed in their zeal to protect abortion rights, and what would soon become apparent with Baker’s arrest, was that the new federal policy might also be used to go after moms who use pot during pregnancy. In fact, it seemed tailor-made to address a historic series of court cases that had been frustrating anti-drug prosecutors for decades.
Fetal drug trafficking
In her excellently documented book From Witches to Crack Moms, University of Victoria Professor Susan Boyd traced pregnant prosecutions back to the 1977 case of Margaret Velasques Reyes, who was charged with child endangerment by the state of California for taking mind-altering drugs while pregnant. The charges against Reyes didn’t stick, however, because the state ruled that the law only applied to live, born children. While still in the womb, they weren’t considered “individuals.”5
After Reyes’ victory, prosecutors tried a new angle. They laid charges against a mom for trafficking to her fetus in the seconds between her child’s birth and the moment the umbilical cord was cut. Jennifer Johnson was convicted of the crime in 1989, but appealed her case with the help of the ACLU and won.
The Bush administration’s new definition of “individual” means that these two women would likely have lost their cases.
Death by pharmaceuticals
Some would say that it is irresponsible for any expectant mother to use cannabis during pregnancy. They argue that it is safest for pregnant women to stick to mainstream medical treatments and pharmaceutical drugs.
Yet physicians today are not very adept at healing situations like prolonged labor or extreme nausea. The modern medical establishment’s only attempt to help mothers suffering from extreme nausea was a disaster: a drug known as Thalidomide. Thousands of babies were born without arms and legs around the world during the 1970’s, as a result of Thalidomide prescriptions.
Since Thalidomide was taken off the market, medical practitioners have been wary of developing aggressive medications aimed at preventing severe nausea.
Yet we have a rough equivalent to Thalidomide today in the form of the drug Cytotec. Doctors commonly administer Cytotec to hasten prolonged labors, or even to speed up a normal labor – both of which could be stimulated more safely with cannabis. In many cases, babies of Cytotec-dosed moms are delivered intact, but the consequences of not waiting for a natural labor can also be heinous.
The most damning evidence of its dangers to pregnant moms is Cytotec manufacturer Searle’s own warning, issued to doctors, that it should not be used to hasten delivery. Then there’s the US Food and Drug warning that Cytotec can cause “abortion, premature birth, birth defects, and uterine rupture.”
Yet according to a story by investigative journalist David Goodman that appeared in Mother Jones magazine’s January/February 2001 issue, these warnings are not enough to stop doctors from using Cytotec. Goodman told the horror story of Suzanne Altomare who was dosed on Cytotec without being warned of its dangers. She suffered a uterine rupture, her baby dropped into her abdomen, suffocated and was delivered brain-dead. Like other expectant moms who suffered Cytotec-induced tragedies, Altomare lost both her baby and her uterus in the procedure, meaning that she would never be able to fill her loss with the birth of another child. A Freedom of Information Act filed by the magazine revealed that in the three years before Goodman’s article, at least 30 other women had suffered uterine rupture due to Cytotec.
Ina Mae Gaskin – who helped lead a modern revival of interest in midwifery as part of the 60’s back-to-the-land movement, and whose book Sacred Midwifery is considered an essential read by midwives everywhere – told Cannabis Culture that doctors still use Cytotec today, and many still fail to warn would-be moms of the potential consequences.
“It’s all about perceived convenience,” she said. “But not for the women. If she suffers from it, that’s anything but convenient. I don’t know how many people have to die before it becomes a subject that’s opened by the major media. This drug, Cytotec, is at least as dangerous as crack, probably way more so. Some deaths get swept under the rug in America and some don’t.”
Meanwhile, although there are no serious complications reported from cannabis, many mothers still face the loss of their children and time in prison if they use it while pregnant. When it comes to treating conditions like extreme nausea or stalled labors, pregnant women need legal, free access to the herbs that have been safely used for generations.
Cannabinoid deficiency syndrome
A serious ailment suffered by many pregnant women is Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), a devastating illness which causes vomiting, malnutrition, dehydration, severe weight loss, blood clots, and more serious problems including inflamed pancreas, bloody stool, paralysis, blindness, coma and, in severe cases, death of both mother and child. Some have described it as “morning sickness times a million.”
There is no safe and effective known pharmaceutical treatment for HG, but many women have found immediate relief from nausea and HG through the use of cannabis.
Cannabis-medicine expert and MD Ethan Russo, the Senior Medical Advisor to UK med-pot corporation GW Pharmaceuticals, has suggested that HG may be one of a class of illnesses caused by “endocannabinoid deficiency syndrome.” (Endocannabinoids are the natural body chemicals which are mimicked by THC and other cannabinoids.)
In his paper, Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency (CED), Russo explores this syndrome in depth. He concludes that CED may cause several illnesses, including glaucoma, for scientists have shown conclusively that the mechanism involved in regulating the eyes’ internal pressure is under “tonic endocannabinoid control.”
Similarly, writes Russo, endocannabinoid systems have been implicated in migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and HG.
Accordingly, an HG sufferer who uses cannabis is merely supplementing her body’s inability to produce cannabinoids itself.
• Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency by Dr Ethan B Russo. Neuroendocrinology Letters. Vol 25. February-April 2004.
Pot & pregnancy throughout history
In the Eber Papyrus, the ancient Egyptians noted the use of cannabis to induce contractions.
In Israel in 1993, researchers found the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl who died while giving birth because the baby’s head was too big for her to deliver. The researchers concluded that an ancient midwife may have administered cannabis in an attempt to encourage the delivery, for carbonized cannabis residue was found in the tomb.
The Ninth Century Persian medical expert Sabur Ibn Sahl noted the use of cannabis in his Al-Aqrabadhin Al-Saghir. According to Sahl, the juice of cannabis seeds and other herbs were mixed together to prevent miscarriage and relieve pain in the uterus.
The Codex Vindobonensis, thought to be a 13th Century Italian copy of an earlier, possibly Roman work, describes the use of cannabis for stimulating milk flow in mothers.
The Chinese medical text Pen T’sao Kang Mu, written by Shih-Chen in 1596, described the use of hemp root juice to retain the placenta and prevent hemorrhage immediately after birth.
German folk medicine of the 1800’s recommended rubbing a cannabis preparation on the swelling breasts of new mothers to relieve pain.
In 1851, Dr Alexander Christison used tincture of cannabis to successfully treat pregnant women who suffered from stalled labors, inducing many successful births. His work was reproduced by Dr Grigor the next year.
In 1854, the Dispensatory of the United States acknowledged the use of cannabis to hasten a stalled labor. Subsequently, many doctors in the US and France described their resounding successes in using pot to speed stalled deliveries.
In 1862, Wright noted that cannabis was excellent for relieving nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. He noted one case of extreme nausea: His patient was “suffering to an extent that threatened death, with vomiting” and none of his traditional remedies worked. When treated with cannabis, however, the illness retreated immediately.
The 1800’s saw doctors in the US, France, Britain, and India recognize cannabis’ usefulness in treating uterine bleeding. The same was noted by Sajous and Sajous in 1924.
In 1880, French doctors noted cannabis’ benefits in cases where women hemorrhaged profusely after childbirth.
In 1893-94, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission noted the use of cannabis for prolonged labor.
In 1903, in the US, Dr Bartholow noted the use of cannabis for promoting uterine contractions and was quoted in popular medical texts. The same was noted again in 1924, by Doctors Sajous and Sajous.
In 1960, in Czechoslovakia, a team of investigators discovered that cannabis extract in alcohol and glycerin was excellent for treating tears in the nipples of nursing mothers and thus prevented infection and mastitis.
In 1975, Martin noted that Cambodian mothers used an infusion of flowering cannabis tops and other herbs to stimulate milk production when it was low.
In 1997, Dr Melanie Dreher published her study of Jamaican women which found that they frequently employed cannabis, without any harm to the baby, to prevent nausea during pregnancy.
In a 2003 report, Dr Ester Fride of the College of Judea and Samaria explained how scientists discovered that mother’s milk was also controlled by the endocannabinoid system, and that cannabinoids are even found in the luscious liquid itself. Cannabinoids in mother’s milk, says Fride, are “critical for survival” as they stimulate the initiation of suckling in the newborn.
A 2004 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism showed that a pregnant woman’s level of anandamide, the natural body chemical which is mimicked by THC, rises by about four times when she goes into labor. Researchers tentatively concluded that the rise of anandamide could be the body’s way of inducing labor. This begins to explain how using cannabis helps a stalled labor. Other recent studies have also shown a high concentration of cannabinoid receptors in the uterus.
• Many of these references were taken from Cannabis Treatments in Obstetrics and Gynecology: An Historical Review, by Dr Ethan Russo, MD. The Haworth Press. 2002.
Studying toking moms
Some of the best research into the effects that cannabis-using moms have on their children has been done by Dr Melanie Dreher, Dean and Professor at the University of Iowa’s College of Nursing (CC#15, Dr Melanie Dreher, reefer researcher).
Earlier, methodologically flawed studies done in the US showed that among pot-using pregnant moms, children had a lower birth weight and were more likely to suffer Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. But these studies compared pot-smoking women who lived at the poverty level with non-tokers who enjoyed a higher standard of living.
When Dreher corrected for the poverty level by doing a cross-cultural study in Jamaica, she found that children of pot-using pregnant women were more well adjusted, better organized, had “more robust motor and autonomic systems,” were less irritable, and were “more rewarding for caregivers.”
FOOTNOTES
1) Wise Woman’s Herbal for the Childbearing Year, by Susun S Weed. Ash Tree, Woodstock, NY. 1986. p 64.
2) Weed, p 72.
3) From Witches to Crack Moms: Women, Drug Law and Policy, by Susan C Boyd. Carolina Academic Press, Durham, NC. 2004. pp 112-113.
4) Newborn Twins on Drugs at Birth, by Jim McBride. The Amarillo Globe-News, Texas. June 12, 2004.
5) Boyd, p 108.
6) Criminal Prosecutions Against Pregnant Women, by Paltrow. Reproductive freedom project, NY. 1992.
7) Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study, by Melanie C Dreher, Kevin Nugent, and Rebekah Hudgins. Pediatrics, Vol 93, Issue 2, pp 254-260. February 1994.Cannabis and pregnancy
by
Balle J, Olofsson MJ, Hilden J
H:S Hvidovre Hospital, familieambulatoriet.
Ugeskr Laeger 1999 Sep 6; 161(36):5024-8ABSTRACT
In two Copenhagen University hospitals 12,885 pregnant women, seen during the period 1.8.1992 to 30.04.1995, answered questionnaires regarding consumption of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other drugs. The prevalence of cannabis use was 0.8%. Women using cannabis but no other illicit drugs were each retrospectively matched with four randomly chosen pregnant women in the same period and the same age group and with same parity. Eighty-four cannabis users were included. These women were socioeconomically disadvantaged and had a higher prevalence of present and past use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. No significant difference in pregnancy, delivery or puerperal outcome was found. Children of women using cannabis were 150 g lighter, 1.2 cm shorter and had 0.2 cm smaller head circumference than the control infants. Controlling for the child’s sex and maternal use of alcohol did not eliminate the significant differences in birthweight and length; however, they were eliminated by controlling for maternal tobacco smoking. It is concluded, that the use of cannabis is not a major prognostic factor regarding the outcome of pregnancy, but is an indicator of low socioeconomic status and use of other substances.
Scientific evidence
Very little scientific research has been done on the subject of treating menstrual cramps, morning sickness and labour pain with cannabis. The analgesic and anti-emetic effects of cannabis discussed elsewhere show at least a potential in solving some of the problems women experience as a result of these problems. The evidence in this section will therefore dwell on the issue of the safety of taking cannabis whilst pregnant. This should not be taken to indicate that other research on this matter is important, it simply has not been done yet. If cannabis is found to have any negative effect on unborn babies then it is a case of deciding whether or not it outweighs any benefits it may bring. In addition, the following research is only relevant to those patients who are pregnant. Evidently women suffering menstrual problems whilst not pregnant need not consider the effects on unborn children!
Cornelious et al (1995) reviewed existing studies on the subject of taking cannabis whilst pregnant and found that several of the results were inconsistent. They did find suggestions that the gestation period was shorter in cannabis-smoking mothers, but only in those in their adolescence. Studies by Fried (1982) and Hingson et al (1982) showed that women who smoked cannabis regularly whilst pregnant tended to have babies of a lower weight than those who did not. As mentioned above however, how much of this is actually due to cannabis compared to the effects caused by general smoking is unknown.
Zuckerman et al (1989) performed a similar study and found that offspring from mothers who smoked cannabis whilst pregnant weighed on average 3.4 ounces less than the control group’s babies. However there was no difference in the gestation period, nor in the amount of congenital abnormalities.
Ammenheuser et al (1998) found that mothers who smoked cannabis during pregnancy produced babies with higher mutation rates than those of non-smokers. This is a very similar finding to their 1994 study on mutations in tobacco-smoking mothers, so yet again it is hard to distinguish the effects of cannabis from the effects of general smoking.
One of the few studies not involving the smoking of cannabis, but rather focusing on its traditional preparation in tea form was done by Dreher et al (1994). There were no differences in neurobehaviour assessments made between babies birthed by cannabis ingesting mothers and non-cannabis ingesting mothers.
Fried (1995) carried out a relatively long-term experiment which measured the cognitive ability of children born to mothers who smoked cannabis during pregnancy compared to a control group of mothers who did not. The population was split into those born to mothers who smoked heavily, moderately and not at all during pregnancy. There were found to be no differences in ‘intelligence’ (tested in terms of measures such as language development, reading ability, visual and perceptual tests). Initially some small deficits were noticed among children born to cannabis smoking mothers, but by the time the child was 5 years old the deficits had vanished. On the other hand, another study by Fried et al (1998) found that children of mothers who smoked cannabis during pregnancy who were between 9 and 12 years old had reduced ability in terms of ‘executive functioning’ – involving concepts such as planning and anticipation.
The World Health Organisation found no evidence that cannabis causes any chromosomal or genetic damage. Likewise, the NHS National Teratology Information Service finds no evidence ‘to suggest either an increase in the overall malformation rate or any specific pattern of malformations [following marijuana use in pregnancy]’.
Greenland et al (1982) found a greater difference in the duration of labour in mothers who used cannabis than those who did not. However, in another study, Fried et al (1983) found no difference between heavy, medium and non-users of cannabis in regard to several neonatal outcomes. As is common with many of these studies, recognition should be taken that the study population was too small to provide definite answers in clinical practice.
A larger study by Braunstein et al (1983) found that cannabis users did produce babies of lower weight and with a greater chance of malformations.
As is evident, much of this evidence seems contradictory. It is hard to draw conclusions as to the effects cannabis use has on unborn babies. There seems little evidence that there is any association between cannabis use during pregnancy and any abnormalities in the resulting child. However, it is likely that smoking anything (cannabis, tobacco, parsley, bananas, daffodils…) can cause harm to unborn children. Thus, if the medicinal properties of cannabis are to be used as an aid to pregnant mothers a method of administration other than smoking should be used.
ReferencesAmmenheuser MM, Berenson AB, Babiak AK, Singleton CR, Whorton Jr EB. (1998) Frequencies of hprt mutant Iymphocytes in marijuana-smoking mothers and their newborns. Mutation Research 403:55-64.
Ammenheuser MM, Berenson NJ, Stiglich EB, Whorton Jr EB, Ward Jr JB. (1994) Elevated frequencies of hprt mutant Iymphocytes in cigarette-smoking mothers and their newborns. Mutation Research 304:285-294.
Braunstein, G.D., Buster, J.E., Soares, J.R., and Gross, S.J. (1983) Pregnancy hormone concentrations in marijuana users. Life Sci. 33: 195-199.
Cornelius MD, Taylor PM, Geva D, Day NL. (1995) Prenatal tobacco and marijuana use among adolescents: Effects on offspring gestational age, growth, and morphology. Pediatrics 738-743.
Dreher M.C., Nugent K., & Hudgins R. (1994) Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study. Pediatrics 93 (2) 254-260.
Fried PA. (1982). Marihuana use by pregnant women and effects on offspring: An update. Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology 4:451 -454.
Fried, P.A., Buckingham, M., and Von Kulmiz, P. (1983) Marijuana use during pregnancy and perinatal risk factors. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 146: 992994.
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Maternal use of cannabis and pregnancy outcome.
Fergusson DM, Horwood LJ, Northstone K, ALSPAC Study Team
Abstract
Objective: To document the prevalence of cannabis use in a large sample of British women studied during pregnancy, to determine the association between cannabis use and social and lifestyle factors and assess any independent effects on pregnancy outcome.
Design: Self-completed questionnaires on use of cannabis before and during pregnancy.Sample: Over 12,000 women expecting singletons at 18 to 20 weeks of gestation who were enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood.
Methods: Any association with the use of cannabis before and during pregnancy with pregnancy outcome was examined, taking into account potentially confounding factors including maternal social background and other substance use during pregnancy.
Main outcome measures: Late fetal and perinatal death, special care admission of the newborn infant, birthweight, birth length and head circumference.Results: Five percent of mothers reported smoking cannabis before and/or during pregnancy; they were younger, of lower parity, better educated and more likely to use alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, tea and hard drugs. Cannabis use during pregnancy was unrelated to risk of perinatal death or need for special care, but, the babies of women who used cannabis at least once per week before and throughout pregnancy were 216g lighter than those of non-users, had significantly shorter birth lengths and smaller head circumferences. After adjustment for confounding factors, the association between cannabis use and birthweight failed to be statistically significant (P=0.056) and was clearly non-linear: the adjusted mean birthweight for babies of women using cannabis at least once per week before and throughout pregnancy were 90g lighter than the offspring of other women. No significant adjusted effects were seen for birth length and head circumference.
Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the use of cannabis during pregnancy was not associated with increased risk of perinatal mortality in this sample. However, frequent and regular use of cannabis throughout pregnancy may be associated with small but statistically detectable decrements in birthweights.
BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2002; 109: 21-27
Tack för intressant information Friggs!
Subjektivt tyckande vs. vetenskap…?
Så förefaller det vara…
Skulle vara intressant med annans vetenskap mot “din vetenskap”.
Som alla vetenskapsfilosofer vet finns ingen vetenskap utan vetenskaper. Det finns bara bättre och sämre sanningar.
Daniel
Tack för en bra sammanställning av den tillgängliga informationen Friggs! I form av personliga erfarenheter och vetenskapliga rapporter ger du en bra inblick i frågan….
Jag tog mig inte tid att läsa det där men enligt forskningar föds barnen underviktiga om man brukar cannabis under graviditet.
Tack Friggs för den sakliga informationen.
Har dock aldrig trott att det var skadligt.Det hävdas att barn till RÖKARE föds underviktiga i större utsträckning än barn till ickerökare.
Det gäller alltså rökning generellt och inte just rökning av cannabis.menar
C.@gammal_christianit wrote:
Det hävdas att barn till RÖKARE föds underviktiga i större utsträckning än barn till ickerökare.
Det gäller alltså rökning generellt och inte just rökning av cannabis.menar
C.Sant. Kolmonoxiden i röken minskar hemoglobinets förmåga att binda och transportera syre, har jag för mig. Därav den lägre vikten för barn födda av rökare.
@Loffe wrote:
@gammal_christianit wrote:
Det hävdas att barn till RÖKARE föds underviktiga i större utsträckning än barn till ickerökare.
Det gäller alltså rökning generellt och inte just rökning av cannabis.menar
C.Sant. Kolmonoxiden i röken minskar hemoglobinets förmåga att binda och transportera syre, har jag för mig. Därav den lägre vikten för barn födda av rökare.
Sant.
Fostret får till och med i sig större mängd än mamman när det gäller vissa ämnen, till exempel kolmonoxid och nikotin. Fostrets blod tar upp dubbelt så mycket kolmonoxid som mammans, och gasen stannar dessutom kvar längre hos fostret än hos mamman. Rökning ökar riskerna för:
* att fostret växer för dåligt
* missfall
* fosterdöd under graviditeten
* för tidig förlossning
* avlossning av moderkakan
* plötslig spädbarnsdöd
Hur mycket du röker står i direkt proportion till risken för fosterskador. Så fort du slutar kommer det fostret till godo.
Kan man säga att fostren “lider” av om mamman skulle äta eller dricka cannabiset? Istället för att röka det, om nu det bara är själva rökningen som är farligt…
Idar, den frågan var så jädra bra att jag var tvungen att läsa igenom texten som friggs reciterade för att hitta nåt svar. Och det gjorde jag!
MEN SKJUT MIG DÅ för att jag är sämst på engelska, gör det.
Tack för mkt bra info!
@idar wrote:
MEN SKJUT MIG DÅ för att jag är sämst på engelska, gör det.
Oj, förlåt. Det var inte menat som att hacka på dig Idar, jag ville bara inte skriva ut svaret för att texten just var väldigt intressant och jag hoppades på att fler skulle läsa den… Det var faktiskt din fråga som fick mig att läsa texten så ta jag tycker du ska fokusera på det istället för dina engelskakunskaper.
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