The American scientists have conducted research which proved that using cannabis by pregnant women poses no significant risks to a child and is not objectively connected with adverse, intrusive neonatal results.
A new, game-changing study was published in Obstetrics & Gynecology educational, academical journal. According to the article, using cannabis without a dope of tobacco or any other drugs doesn’t influence neither newborn baby’s preterm delivery nor weight. The team of scientists which are behind the study was led by experienced and respected Dr. Shayna N. Conner from noble Washington University. The whole research happened at St. Louis’ School of Medicine. Dr. Conner’s team has reviewed exactly thirty one observational studies made between 1982 and 2015, all of which have examined relation between neonatal outcomes and marijuana smoking by mother of the child.
It turned out, that an important pattern was hiding between these papers. In the case of unadjusted data, studies were showing association between marijuana maternal use and an increased risk of preterm delivery (15,3% in contradistinction to 9,6%) and a low birth rate (15,4% in comparison to 10,4%). Simultaneously, if the data was adjusted for tobacco smoke, there were no significant, increased threat for low birth weight dited.
It fall out that using marijuana by future mothers during their pregnancy is not as risky as we thought it might be. We can read in the study, that adjusting problems mentioned above with another factors, especially with tobacco smoke, clears marijuana out of charges. Furthermore, there is no increased threat noticed for other intrusive neonatal results, including placental abruption, if we consider different influencing factors.
The outcomes presented within the breakthrough study are coherent with the results of other research done back in 2010. Previous studies were published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal and financed by U.S. Centers for Disease Control. They were predicated on the series of interviews with mothers who have birth to their fully healthy babies between 1997 and 2004. Even at that time the researches stated that they haven’t found any linkage between cannabis maternal use and spontaneous preterm birth or low birth weight. It wasn’t completely clear though - there were also some other studies published, which have shown a slightly increased risk of such difficulties and connected cannabis use with an anencephaly birth defect.
Shortly speaking, dr. Shayna N. Conner’s team implies in the article that the adverse outcomes noticed with infants are probably caused by coexisting tobacco smoking and some other misleading factors. To be fair, Washington University’s employer doesn’t encourage to use marijuana during pregnancy - quite the opposite, she doesn’t recommend that. Dr. Conner stated, that any foreign substance which provides no directly benefits for mother or fetus should stay laid of. Simultaneously she stressed that results of new research show that public money for health issues should go on preventing tobacco, alcohol and other harmful drugs, which are proven to cause preterm deliveries and bad birth defects. It will be much more beneficial and reasonable than spending dollars on fighting maternal cannabis use. It is also not insignificant that women who smoked cannabis before finding out that they’re pregnant will recover their comfort.
Effects caused by cannabis use are one of the top subjects these days. In four states of America adults are allowed to smoke marijuana legally. There will be a loud voting in November about recreational marijuana use in five more states. Considering the fact that 2-5% of women admits that they smoke cannabis while carrying a baby, defining relations between marijuana use during pregnancy and health of infants is a priority matter and it is more important than ever before.
