Smoking Pot For Morning Sickness?
ceridwen
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A New Zealand woman posted a video on the web of her talking about smoking marijuana to help with her morning sickness. She said her doctor and midwife approved and that the pot eased her morning sickness completely. It’s a scrappy low-budget recording, and I don’t know how many people saw it or took her advice, but it prompted the president of the New Zealand Pediatric Society to make a statement warning about the possible harm of pot-smoking in pregnancy.
I have heard that pot smoking reduces nausea in morning-sick women. Recently when I wrote about a study showing there really is no cure for morning sickness, one Babble reader wrote in: “There’s one thing that helps with morning sickness, time-proven, and mother-tested. But just like it’s ecological benefits, no one will study it because it’s been painted with a scarlet letter. I’m talkin’ ’bout weed, y’all, and I’m not kidding.” But what do we know about pot and pregnancy? We know it has an effect on our body chemistry, but what does it do to the growing fetus?
As with most drugs — street and prescription — we don’t have enough information. The standard advice on this topic is to avoid street drugs including marijuana. But after having researched the topic, I’ve found the pot and pregnancy question a pretty uneasy one. Compared with highly addictive illicit substances and binge drinking — and, for that matter, cigarette smoking — pot smoking is less conclusively dangerous. Partly because it’s hard to do a controlled study. Rebecca and I wrote about this very topic for our former Babble column, “Parental Advisory”:
“Pot smokers are more likely to smoke cigarettes and use other drugs, and no one who smokes pot during pregnancy feels much like opening up about it. The result is few studies with mitigating factors. Some research shows that prenatal pot exposure has been associated with behavioral and neurological problems. Some show no effects. One study even showed that pot-exposed babies fared exceptionally well. We do know that pot stays in the system a long time and that drugs pass through the placenta, so the drug is likely getting to the baby. We just don’t know exactly what it does when it gets there.”
Some people think the positive effects of the drug outweigh what harm might be done to the fetus — neither has been irrefutably proven. But many others think it’s not worth the risk.
The other issue to consider is the fact that pot is illegal in most states. Ultimately, this question, like all the other ones you’ll be dealing with as a mother, is up to you. Also, with pot smoking it can be hard to separate the real risks from the cultural assumptions and stigma. For further information on the topic without the histrionics, you could check out The Panic Free Pregnancy, by laid-back L.A. M.D. Michael Broder.
photo: R. Mannie Photography/flickr
When I taught at a dropout recovery school, where many of my girls were pregnant or teen moms, I had a student casually admit she was doing this to “treat” her morning sickness. Shocked, I asked her to please talk to her doctor before she did it again (she did and her dr said not to, and she stopped). But when I researched it myself, I could find very little to support my shock. I personally hate cigerettes and have never even considered pot, pregnant or not. But that whole interaction made me wonder if I’d over-reacted. Who knows, with all the confounding variables. And it’s not like anyone is about to get a double-blind reserach study through an ERB anytime soon.
I suffered from “all day sickness”. Nothing I ate stayed down and I got desperate and tried pot. It worked like a miracle! I used it lightly, just to keep down my meals though most of my pregnancy with my son. He is now 15 and an honor roll student.
You could say that my second pregnancy was minorly studied. I also was honest about my “medicine” for morning sickness. My midwife tried several other solutions to cure me but in the end only one thing worked. It had worked with my first pregnancy as well, although I was “in the closet” about it with my doctor at that time. For my second pregnancy, my midwife performed random drug tests, in addition to my sugar levels to confirm my admitted “dose”. At my daughters birth both she and I were tested, she came out “clean”, while I did not. I was told that my first daughter did not pass her drug test, but with military doctors- I am not sure as to the accuracy of that- it is possible. I breast-fed both of my daughters for the recommended eight weeks. They are both in school now and are advanced in every subject. Their teachers often discuss their attention to detail and focus. I am not saying that by smoking it made it happen but it certainly had no ill affects. They are healthy, happy and well adjusted children.
I come from a long dynasty of Hyperemesis gravidarum sufferers (severe morning sickness, as in 3-8 times a day throwing up.) The previous medication, thalidomide, in the 70′s for nausea was found to cause severe defects in babies and in the 80′s when my mother was pregnant with me she used the safest medication she could find to ease her symptoms, marijuana. Many hyperemesis sufferers have to go to the hospital for electrolyte imbalances and fluid loss.
Now I find myself 9 months pregnant and I was fortunate to have excellent insurance and a safe and legal option for morning sickness but I can assure you if I, like many families right now, was unable to afford this medication (which without insurance is almost $1000 a month,) I would have confidently chosen medical marijuana as a cheaper alternative. More research should be done because I would have gladly taken it instead, at least at night, if I had been able to have a safe, legal, organic source.
I suffered 3 miscarriges,from violent morning sickness/all day sickness. My friends All suggested I try a little Pot in the morning…It was a Wonder Drug! I was able to breath again with out vomiting I could finaly able to eat and it stayed down,and when my children were born they were full term, healthy, perfect children. Each has had very few illnesses thru their life. They all tested as mentaly gifted, and are creative well roumded adults. I don’t say abuse the drug, but do use every God Given herb that works.
I just want to throw out there that when you buy weed from someone you can’t be sure its “just weed.” Any number of things can be mixed in with it or used to grow it- chemicals/cocaine/acid/pcp/formaldehyde/steroids. Pot in 2010 is not the same as pot in 1970. I would not be worried about the weed but what could be IN it. I would hate for my baby to go on an accidental acid trip in my womb.
It would be nice if it was regulated and we could know just what we’re getting in our doobies.
Melanie Dreher did a long term study on the effects of marijuana on pregnant women and the children after birth… this will amaze you this is just some more of the suppressed information about marijuana that people should see. PLEASE GOOGLE HER NAME OR “GANGA BABIES”
BC – All those other drugs you’re talking about like cocaine for example is much much more expensive than weed. Therefore, if there is coke on your weed, the price will be jacked up nobody wastes coke on regular tokers for amusement, it’s a waste of money. In case you haven’t noticed drug dealers are all about profit, not about dosing someone for giggles.
People have done it, are doing it now, and will do it again. Don’t be so na
The minute you become pregnant you become selfless. If you have morning sickness its because a miracle is growing inside of you! You were giving the gift of bringing life into the world have are incredibly irresponsible and selfish to even consider bringing harm to it. You can go 9 months
……Na
My first reaction here was “oh my God, that’s gotta be a joke.” Then again, I never had to deal with completely debilitating morning sickness. Even so, I feel like until more is known, I wouldn’t do it.
Believe it or not, it’s good for more than morning sickness.. my OB-GYN is cool with my light usage because of my blood pressure– pot increases your heart rate temporarily, but can seriously lower your blood pressure. In conjunction with a beta blocker, it has done wonders for me! They’re no longer worried that I’m going to drop-dead from doing housework.
I should have mentioned that I have extremely high blood pressure– at least I did until I started my “treatment”.
I am sure it’s better for you than those heavy pharmaceuticals they push. However, when I had severe all-day sickness, I took absolutely nothing.
It was awful, but it’s over. I never want to be pregnant again because I could not go through with that again.
While I was pregnant with first child, I had the most unrelenting morning sickness ever. I managed my own company at the time and I needed the money so I couldn’t let the sickness slow me down. So a friend recommended I try pot. I will never forget the day that I tried it. I could eat and drink and keep my food down. Absolutely amazing. My doctor had tried many different pills on me and they didn’t work. Instead of smoking though, I made edibles. I did research and the only harmful thing that I read about the effects of pot on the fetus was when you inhale and hold your breath you are depriving oxygen to the fetus. Pot helped me more than anything. I knew where it came from, how it was grown, and that it is 100% organic with no pesticides or chemicals. My doctor also told me (when I asked her about it) and she said she would rather see me with a joint in my mouth than a ciggarette. My daughter was born full term and she weighed 7lbs 3 oz. She was 100% healthy. She’s 4 now and she is way advanced for her age. With my second pregnancy I had no morning sickness. Thank goodness. So I had no need for pot. My youngest was born 6 days over due and she only weighed 6.5 lbs. And she lost .5 lbs after birth and was not as healthy as my oldest. It just goes to show that every pregnancy is different. If you feel like you have tried everything that you could and you feel like pot is your last resort,try it. It helps with so many different things. It might just be the perfect medicine for you. With little cost and little to no bad side effects. I recommend not smoking it though. Smoking anything is bad for you lungs. I made cannabis butter and I would spread it on soda crackers. You can add canna-butter to pretty much anything and it’s really easy to make.
I have a vested interest in this as I am a ‘ganga baby’, born to parents who are long-term users of home-grown, organic marijuana. My mum smoked home-grown marijuana throughout all her pregnancies, including with me. It hadn’t occurred to her that there might be any risks, although she did stop smoking cigarettes. You would, however, expect marijuana to be bad for the baby because one of the ways dope gets you high is by reducing the oxygen content of the blood, and we KNOW that is bad for babies. Clearly nothing dreadful happened as I am OK physically and mentally – however, a study group of 1 proves little. I will always wonder if it has anything to do with my dreadful memory and the fact that I’ve always been scatty, and am very susceptible to drugs, drink etc – I think I have an addictive personality and I stay away from them. I certainly was not prepared to risk smoking dope when pregnant, although thankfully I didn’t have to battle with severe sickness.
I am concerned to read about people taking pot for blood pressure because my father has recently had a serious heart irregularity which appears to have been caused by his home-grown, organic, traditional (ie not skunk) marijuana. His cardiologist said he had recently fitted a pacemaker to a 19 year-old who had the same problem, caused again by marijuana use. Fortunately for my dad, restricting the puff to a couple of times a month seems to have sorted it out. I read widely on this and found there is a massively increased risk of stroke in the few hours after smoking marijuana. THis suggests it can cause high blood pressure, so don’t rely on it lowering your bp – the effects may be different in different people.
@MULTITASKMUMMA Next time you get hospitalized or have a miscarriage because you are throwing up so much you’re suffering from electrolyte imbalances and fluid loss and possible starvation (it’s called Hyperemesis Gravidarum, look it up,) then you can tell me “you can go 9 months.” Most mothers aren’t going to take any medications, including pot unless there is a necessary medical indication and making assumptions about something you obviously haven’t experienced just makes you ignorant and cruel.
I quit smoking cigarettes the moment I found out I was pregnant. The additives in cigarettes are, in my opinion, much more harmful to a fetus than a small toke of pot to relieve morning sickness. My son is 2 years old and according to our doctor his verbal, motor and reasoning skills are well above average. (he speaks in up to 8 word sentences, knows the alphabet in full and is empathetic to characters in stories. I didn’t smoke pot my whole pregnancy, I used it sparingly to relieve my morning sickness during the first four months. I understand people’s fears, but they are based on lies and misinformation that cannot be backed up by any medical science.
I am very pleased to have stumbled upon this discussion. I too was a case of “all day” sickness in my first trimester of pregnancy. My doctor prescribed medication to ease the sickness but a quick google search of the side effects, add on the fact that the drug was less than 5 years on the market, was enough to keep me from filling the prescription.
Before pregnancy I used marijuana exclusively for medicinal purposes, namely menstrual cramps. It occurred to me that marijuana may offer the best and, in my opinion, safest form of relief. I consulted with a few trusted friends, my midwife and doula (who both told me they would not advise one way or the other), and hours of online research — I came to the conclusion that this was, for me, the best option. I used marijuana very sparingly, and only on the days my morning sickness was (quite literally) debilitating…this came to be about once per week during weeks 7-13 of pregnancy. It was the ONLY thing that brought relief… rather, enough relief to eat and keep it down.
My daughter is now 21 months and speaks in full sentences (up to 6 words). She is a healthy, happy, outgoing, loving and empathetic child. She knows colors, shapes and the alphabet, and she remembers where she last left my keys or phone if I ask her to find them. Developmentally, according to her pediatrician and when comparing her to other kids her age, she is pretty far ahead of the curve.
As others have said in this thread, I will not assert that any of this is a result of marijuana use during pregnancy but I can testify that it had absolutely no negative effects. Most importantly, it helped me get through an otherwise horrendous period of illness that additionally caused anxiety, stress and tears–which, I feel, could be most harmful to an unborn child.
I was a habitual pot smoker.. well, always, but quit after finding out I was pregnant each time. Given that my periods were irregular, I didn’t realize I was pregnant until well into the first trimester each time and was smoking steadily. Never tried cigarettes… I’m just a hippie girl who likes a buzz. I worried about the effects of that early mj use, but all four of my kids are really bright and articulate, early talkers all, and I really don’t think that there were any adverse effects.
remember thalidomide…i would way rather have had those moms smoke pot…pharmaceutical companies do not have the peoples best interest at heart..
I don’t know. I’m not going to try it, even though I am 32 weeks pregnant and still have to take Zofran on a daily basis to not throw up all night long. I used to work with teen moms and one was convinced her child was precocious because of pot smoking during pregnancy. I just suggested it was a theory she probably should not test again.
Perhaps anyone who questions the safety of marijuana during pregnancy should look at cultures that accept its use, Jamacia for example. I believe their entire population is free from these suspected “adverse” effects. Marijuana has been used for thousands of years, it was the most widely prescribed drug in America before it was outlawed less than 100 years ago. i cannot count how many healthy, HAPPY and highly intelligent people I know whose mommies puffed while they were in the womb. Please look at the recent past of prescription drugs during pregnancy. Thousands of years of human culture tell more than FDA could ever know. What part of SAFE are we refusing to recognize here? God bless all the motherbabies, may they be healthy and happy. My midwife with my son 18 yrs ago said I was the healthiest pregnant woman she ever attended. She commented on how beautiful, perfect and healthy my placenta was. Top of the charts height and weight and too smart for his own good, my son. Ongoing sickness is debilitating and depressing. Marijuana is a mood elevator, great for relieving nausea, forbidden in a society that legalizes, glamorizes and condones, alcohol which is a depressant and kills brain cells. See you at the park at 4:20!
Rhonda is so right. Take a man-made drug or natural drug for morning sickness? I go with natural.
I was hospitalized twice bc I could not eat or drink due to morning sickness. Weed helped me sleep and regain my health. And to the woman tht said ppl put extra stuff in weed.. For one thing its clear u dnt kno much about weed.. But if u cnt tell the difference between weed and cocaine.. then thts ur problem. Most of us know what weed looks like and everyone I know that buys weed always looks at it first.. it’s not rocket science.. I support weed during pregnancy.
Also I smoked during my first daughters pregnancy and she is 2yrs old & docters say her intelligence level is tht of a 4 yr old. She is brillant and has always been advanced