Marijuana Use During Pregnancy: What’s The Concern?

Marijuana is mainly an illicit drug which contains the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is rapidly absorbed by the body regardless of the route of consumption. It is available nearly everywhere on the planet and has been legalized for medicinal and recreational use in some countries, especially in Europe and North America.

THC causes certain effects on the body which is the reason why people use this drug. They are as follows:

• Elevated mood.
• Muscle relaxation.
• Increased appetite.

Adverse effects

Marijuana can have some unwanted effects which can become bothersome and problematic and they include:

• Acute anxiety.
• Auditory and/or visual hallucinations.
• Paranoia.
• Dry mouth and blurry vision.
• Decreased motor skills.
• Impaired short-term memory.

These adverse effects can last from hours to days depending on the rate of marijuana use. Issues such as short term memory loss and decreased motor skills and coordination seem to last up to a few weeks though.

Effects of marijuana on pregnancy

Marijuana use during pregnancy has resulted in complications which were brought to light through anecdotal evidence, collected from questionnaires completed by mothers who had used this drug, and from clinical studies that were done.  

These complications had included the following issues:

• The incidence of high risk pregnancies were increased. Here, the expectant mothers had experienced premature labour and delivery of the baby which resulted in the newborns being admitted to intensive care facilities. The newborn babies had to be cared for in these facilities due to their low birth weights and also possibly due to their lungs not having developed properly yet. It was found that these mothers would use marijuana on a regular basis (weekly and even daily use), and their babies were two times more likely of being transferred to a neonatal ICU after delivery as opposed to babies whose mothers didn't use the drug.
• The incidence of brain malformations occurring in babies whose mothers used marijuana were doubled as opposed to babies whose mothers who hadn't used the drug.

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• Long term complications were also found in children whose mothers had used marijuana whilst pregnant with them. These issues had included cognitive and behavioural changes which were present in 3 year old children.
• In a study done on 4 year old children, whose mothers had used marijuana on a daily basis, it was found that they had scored lower on memory tests that were conducted on them. It was determined, though, that there wasn't any negative impact on these children's intelligence levels. Unfortunately, by 10 years of age, it was found that these children had an increased chance of developing attention deficit disorders.

Studies Done On The Effect Of Marijuana Use During Pregnancy

Appropriate findings from relevant studies 

In the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fried et al published their findings that 84 out of 583 women who used marijuana six or more times per week during their pregnancy showed a statistically significant reduction of 0.8 weeks in the length of gestation after considering the effects of factors such as alcohol, nicotine, the mother's parity, her pre-pregnancy weight and the sex of the infant. These findings gave merit to the data published by Hatch and Bracken in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Their prospective study on 3857 pregnancies showed that there was a relation between regular marijuana use and preterm deliveries.

In Psychosos & Vinod it was stated that there was increasing evidence that synthetic and traditional THC could be harmful to fetal development as early as 2 weeks after conception and that it could affect brain development even before signs of pregnancy were present. Animal studies on external THC exposure had been linked to an elevated risk of anencephaly as early as 1-4 weeks gestation. There were also impairments in the neural circuitry which affected the cognitive and emotional centres in the brain with exposure of THC at 18-22 weeks gestation. 

In Calvigioni et al it was stated that research was limited regarding the effects of marijuana on fetal development but it had been established that there were potential long term consequences from prenatal exposure, including behavioral and cognitive implications. This included lower verbal reasoning scores, hyperactivity, impaired mental development inattention, impairment in executive function and impulsivity. In one pf the studies that were reviewed it was found that exposure during the first trimester was linked to reading deficits, low spelling scores and lower child performance at 10 years pf age. It was also determined that marijuana use in the second trimester of pregnancy was associated with lower reading comprehension and overall underachievement among these children.  

Shortcomings in the studies

The mentioned studies were mostly based on questionnaires filled in by the mothers so the  data taken from these could be seen as being subjective in nature. Even though this may be the case, one can't ignore the fact that there were anatomical, cognitive and behavioural changes in children whose mothers used marijuana on a regular basis. 

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Conclusion

Even though these studies were based on questionnaires and meta-analysis, one can't ignore the recurrent and similar findings from different studies done over the past 30 years. It is therefore suggested that expectant mothers who do use marijuana try to stop using this drug as soon as they possibly can. The risks associated with the use of this drug really do outweigh any possible benefit that it could possibly have.