Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

Pointless. Cannabis use has increased amongst pregnant women. The thing says it’s bad but goes into absolutely no detail or evidence as to why.

It's literally the first citation in the paper.

Still, it’s generally frowned upon to be using psychoactive drugs when pregnant, for good reason.

I use cannibis, but stopped when I was preggo. I read half a dozen studies, talked to my OB and psychologist abt the research. They were warning against it bc new studies show developmental delays/social problems in kids that don't show up until later in childhood. I read at least 2 studies that showed some correlation with babies with delayed motor capabilities and mothers who used while pregnant. But I also found larger studies that didn't really find any correlation at all.

I also read studies abt breastfeeding while using cannibis and again, not a whole lot of research, but overwhelmingly, physicians warn against cannibis use while breastfeeding, yet STILL recommend breastfeeding over not breastfeeding (if mother is using cannibis), because bf'ing impacts the baby more positively than the known cannibis risk to him/her. (Known being operative word).

I expected to read a ton of studies about all the negative risks of cannibis use, and I was aware little research doesn't mean something is safe, but when you're pregnant, you're constantly analyzing risk, down to the lunchmeat debate. I expected that the research that was available would overwhelmingly show cannibis wasn't safe. But, when the larger studies couldn't definitely find correlation, I really started to think about cannibis use and pregnancy differently.

But, still, I didn't use while pregnant. And the biggest reason was, a lot of things can happen in a pregnancy. Miscarriage risk is common. But if one of those common things happened to me or my baby, regardless of the real reason, I would feel too much guilt I caused it. Knowing myself well, I abstained. But I no longer believe it's that risky.

Just what I want to know too, what adverse effects?

Safer than cigarettes?

When you are pregnant , no matter what you eat, drink or breath, it translates through your body to your bloodstream and goes through your placenta in some shape or form. When you’re breast feeding “some “ if not “most” of the same things you eat , drink and breathe still translate to the breast milk. So it’s your body and your choice, ultimately, until you effect the outcome of the potential health of the system of the infant in the future. This is how the government will respond.

It’s not your body your choice at that point.

It becomes child abuse, to make your child addicted to opiates for example

I am the bi product of two alcoholic pot heads that fell in love in aa. I had a cleft palette, teeth are all messed up, jaw does not line up, one side of my face is bigger than the other side of my face, mouth stopped growing when I was young, I have an indent in my chest, my calcium receptor is broken, I have bi polar, when my first girlfriend broke up with me without ever taking a sip of booze, my body basically told me to go drink and smoke a bunch of cigs. My nipples have not grown ever. They are the size of the tip of your pinky. If you like to drink and do drugs, just please don’t have children. I would have honesty rather been aborted, suicide is too selfish to do, but when I’m in the middle twice a year manic episodes I really wish I could get hit by a bus.

I'm so sorry. I hope you are able to get health care for the problems you are facing.

1. They certainly do cite the reason they consider it bad:

Gunn JK, Rosales CB, Center KE, Nuñez A, Gibson SJ, Christ C, Ehiri JE. Prenatal exposure to cannabis and maternal and child health outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open. 2016 Apr 1;6:e009986. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009986. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]

2. Studying the impacts of public policy on public health outcomes and establishing causal relationships is not "pointless."

What can be a low-risk fun activity for a grown, 100+ pound adult may very well have serious, lifelong consequences for a tiny pre-human the size of a thumb. It's too bad that people approach weed as some kind of black and white moral imperative instead of a calculated risk.

Ubiquity or normalization does not indicate that an action is correct, however. There are a lot of unknowns with cannabis which is why healthcare does not support its use outside of very specific settings, and pregnancy is known for being fraught with a lot of potential risks even without the addition of substances.

From my perspective, I support the use of substances if medically indicated, but pregnancy is not generally one of those times.

Most of what your describing sounds like fetal alcohol syndrome. Your parents very likely were self medicating due to mental health you clearly inherited. I’m very sorry for what you’ve been through and are going through. Are you receiving the help you need?

Yeah, can’t say it has not taken maximum effort tho. Basically been tired since the day I was born. Hair started going grey at 23.

Well, truth be told, lots of people get grey hair in their 20s. It's most notable in darker haired individuals, of course. My cousin went straight grey in the front due to stress, in fact. My brother who has red hair started going bald in his 20s. So at least your hair issues aren't only your own. :) Upside, yeah?