Smoking Pot and Breast-Feeding: What Are the Risks?

[slimvictor]

A new mother in Oregon says she wants to breast-feed her baby even though she regularly smokes marijuana, but experts say they would be concerned about the risks of the drug to the baby's brain.

The mother, Crystal Cain, said she is a medical-marijuana user who smoked the drug during her pregnancy to reduce anxiety and nausea, according to the Portland TV station KATU. Her baby was born 8 weeks premature, and Cain planned on breast-feeding the child because of the known benefits of breast-feeding.

But doctors at the hospital did not allow Cain to breast-feed until she signed a waiver acknowledging the potential risks of using marijuana while breast-feeding, KATU said.

"There's not enough information [on the risks] because nobody tests it," Cain was quoted as saying.

(I)t's true that few studies have looked at the risks of smoking marijuana while breast-feeding, and many of the studies that have examined this question were conducted several decades ago. However, several organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, discourage the use of marijuana by breast-feeding mothers, in part because of concern that the drug may affect the baby's brain development.

(...)

A 1990 study found that a baby's exposure to THC in the first month of life was linked with reduced movement and coordination skills at age 1. Doctors have also observed lethargy, less frequent feeding and shorter feeding times in babies exposed to THC, according to a 2005 review in the journal Canadian Family Physician.

cont at
http://www.livescience.com/47373-smoking-marijuana-breastfeeding-risks.html

 

[FunctionalOlfactio]

Interesting article. Could you repost the link? If the link is there my browser isn't displaying the url or hyper-link.

 

[slimvictor]

^ Actually, I forgot to include the link, so thank you for calling my attention to it!

I wish that we knew more about cannabis and breast-feeding, because many pregnant women are cannabis users.

My wife stopped using cannabis completely as soon as she learned she was pregnant, but worried because she had used it a few times while pregnant before knowing that she was pregnant. I tried to assure her that there was nothing to worry about, but pregnant women tend to be very emotional, y'know... So she worried bit, but our son is now 10 and smart as a whip (e.g. he scores in the 85th percentile or so on standardized tests for language and math) and so it doesn't appear that too much damage was done, if any... Never had any real behavioral issues either. (at least so far... knock on wood)

Some drug-enjoying friends had this attitude: Maybe there is nothing to worry about. Maybe it would help a fetus in various ways.

But without a LOT more evidence, it is better to play it safe. Pregnant moms, please try to avoid using any drugs at all!

 

[FunctionalOlfactio]

Pregnant mothers get prescribed anti-depressants and other drugs, cannabis probably has similar risks. The environment during pregnancy and the first years of life yields permanent changes in the biochemistry of the offspring. I have witnessed this in plants and this has been documented in mammals.* Psychoactive drug exposure probably has greater psychological consequences than other variables. My opinion of mothers smoking cannabis is the same as my opinion of heavy drinking mothers and mothers on anti-depressants.

*

It has been suggested that severe adverse life events during pregnancy increase the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring. The serotonin 5-HT2A and the metabotropic glutamate 2 (mGlu2) receptors both have been the target of considerable attention regarding schizophrenia and antipsychotic drug development. We tested the effects of maternal variable stress during pregnancy on expression and behavioral function of these two receptors in mice. Prenatal stress increased 5-HT2A and decreased mGlu2 expression in frontal cortex, a brain region involved in perception, cognition and mood. This pattern of expression of 5-HT2A and mGlu2 receptors was consistent with behavioral alterations, including increased head-twitch response to the hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonist DOI, and decreased mGlu2-dependent antipsychotic-like effect of the mGlu2/3 agonist LY379268 in adult, but not prepubertal, mice born to stressed mothers during pregnancy. Cross-fostering studies determined that these alterations were not due to effects of prenatal stress on maternal care. Additionally, a similar pattern of biochemical and behavioral changes were observed in mice born to mothers injected with poly-(I:C) during pregnancy as a model of prenatal immune activation. These data strengthen pathophysiological hypotheses that propose an early neurodevelopmental origin for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

...

Full text:
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/3/1088.long

 

[ebola?]

cannabis probably has similar risks

These are highly unrelated classes of compounds. I would be surprised if the risks were related at all.

ebola

 

[FunctionalOlfactio]

These are highly unrelated classes of compounds. I would be surprised if the risks were related at all.

ebola

You're correct based on how you interpreted my comment. My wording could have been clearer. I was referencing that I consider all types of psychoactives as presenting similar likely hood of influencing the outcome of children. At least until the specific types of changes, magnitude, and mechanisms are better understood.

Some changes could be positive. Hypothetically speaking, a mother gets pregnant with limited water access. Her child develops capable of processing water, minerals, and whatever else is in there too more efficiently. The child is born into drought and can survive better in drought because of these biological adaptations. A provable example is the Sherpas in the Himalayas. People born at high altitudes and in cold climates can climb Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen. The interesting question is what happens if you change the environment after birth?

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

Those changes mentioned above happens over many generations as a result of selection pressures and evolution. It does not work the way you are implying.

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

I really believe that drug use should be non existent while pregnant, the amount of development occurring within that fetus is staggering and it would be damn near a sin to stunt it in any way because someone refuses such a temporary change in lifestyle.