Smoking While Pregnant.

[Guest]

There is no evidence that I'm aware of linking the drugs in marijuana to serious medical conditions in unborn children. Thats not to say it doesn't exist. We do however know for a fact that inhaling any kind of smoke can cause premature births and health problems for growing fetuses. Marijuana or Tobacco should be avoided by pregnant mothers but this isn't always the case.

 

So should Mothers be allowed to smoke while pregnant or should it be outlawed? Be aware that excessive smoking could lead to abortions. Freedom to smoke and risk abortion or freedom from risk for unborn children? Currently there is no law against smoking tobacco while pregnant.

[tecnos]

well if the woman is havin the baby and thhe husband/boyfriend is still hangin round i think both of them should give up untill the child is much older and so on.i think this becasue both of them contributed to makin da baby then both should not be smokin as it is unfair that one gets to while the other is like oh shit no smokin for me .i i just think this is the most reasonable way to sort out the problem it makes it more fair!!!!!!!!!

[IndoSmoke]

whatever a woman does when she's pregnant affects the unborn child. whether she smoke cigs, weed or do heroin it fucks up the unborn baby. it's totally selfish on the part of the pregnant woman....i'm glad i'm not a woman....too much of a pain!!

[Guest]

Its a thorny issue. Kind of highlights the difficulties involved with legislating freedom. For every freedom we enjoy a freedom is sacrificed somewhere else. There is really no right answer in my opinion. The more rules we pile on rules with their clauses and subsections the more confined we become. Enforcing such myriad miles of rules is always prone to abuse and corruption too.

 

Its split 50:50 with 6 votes so far. I knew a woman who purposefully smoked after doctors told her that the baby she was carrying could be born premature. She said "Good, a smaller baby will hurt a lot less." Quitting cigarettes is also very hard. Many mothers do stop out of concern for their child but a lot just cut down. Being pregnant and off your feet is pretty boring too. I daresay there are a few mothers out there smoking grass to help the day go by a little faster. Babies are born with smack addictions so smoking a little pot isn't the most heinous thing a mother could do but it certainly isn't responsible.

 

But then there are a lot of irresponsible parents in the World. The question is whether everyones freedom should be compromised to deal with these people. Should we take second hand smoke into account? Essentially banning mothers from any place smokers congregate? Would it extend to partners as Tecnos has pointed out? This could mean an otherwise law abiding hard working citizen being arrested because his neighbour saw him smoking at home after a tiring day at the office. Where do we draw the line? Every law has rigid details which must be ironed out and just how effectivve would such laws be anyway? They might prove more harmful than good. Maybe we should stop trying to legislate everything.

[Gruntus]

Jeez Louise, don't you people search before you post? I started a thread a few weeks ago on this topic and include some links to Dr. Melanie Dreher's research on this issue. Pot smoking mums rule - read the thread.

[Guest]

Sorry Gruntus. Where is it?

[Tom]

Found this, but it's a year old.

Marijuana use in pregnancy damages kids' learning

 

Children born to mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy may suffer a host of lasting mental defects, suggests a new study in rats. Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug among women of reproductive age.

 

The offspring of pregnant rats given a low dose of cannabinoid were found to perform poorly in learning tests throughout their lives, compared to rats that were not exposed.

 

The Italian research team found that long-term learning in the rats was damaged by the cannabinoids irreversibly disrupting chemical and electrical processes in the brain during gestation. The exposed rats were also more hyperactive as infants, although this effect wore off as the rats reached adulthood.

 

Vincenzo Cuomo, at the La Sapienza University in Rome, and colleagues suggest that similar brain effects could explain learning problems in children born to mothers who use the soft drug during pregnancy.

 

"This is absolutely relevant," says Peter Fried, a psychologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, who has done similar work in humans. "What they have found is very consistent with what we have found in humans."

 

Confounding factors

 

The possible effects of maternal marijuana use on the unborn child and the child's later behaviour are controversial, say Cuomo and colleagues. They argue that rat studies can be very useful in assessing human effects, because studies of people can be hampered by complex confounding factors. These could include cigarette smoking, wealth or urban living.

 

In the study, pregnant rats were injected with a low dose of an artificial cannabinoid. Offspring exposed to the drug during gestation showed hyperactivity during infancy and adolescence, as measured by how many times they broke infrared beams crisscrossing their cages.

 

This stopped when they reached adulthood, but was replaced by problems with memory retention. The researchers showed reduced levels of a messenger chemical called glutamate in the hippocampus, part of the brain associated with learning and visual ability. They also found disruption of electrical processes associated with learning in this region.

 

Fried told New Scientist that as well as affecting memory and learning, exposure to marijuana during pregnancy has a strong effect on visual mapping and analysis in human children.

 

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0537849100)

 

Shaoni Bhattacharya

 

From NewScientist.com's news service, 25 March 2003

 

[Gruntus]

Here 'tis : Cannabis for Labour Pain Relief

[quizywig]

I looked into smoking and pregnancy a few years ago, its not just the women smoking pot or baccy but also the quality of the sperm and how the pot and baccy affects it on a genetic level, i figured on having stop both for about 12 mnths to get my sperm upto peak, maybe thats why i havent had kids yet.

[Buddy]

Well I'm a baby boomer and tobacco was hard to come by when the WW2 was in progress so my mother never smoked, but she almost chain smoked when my four younger brothers were being conceived.

 

The result is that I still have a full head of hair compared to the others being almost bald, I'm healthier, more active, look younger, slimmer and more intelligent than my siblings so whether inhaled toxic substances play a part in the outcome of childbirth is still a major debate, but I personally think it has a lot to do with it. :thumbdown

 

Oh....and more handsome as well