A new pilot study has found that pregnant women exposed to cannabis products that contained CBD and THC were more likely to have children with increased blood sugar levels and fat mass at the age of five, according to a report by CNN.
Brianna Moore, the study author and an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, Colorado, said that there is this misconception that cannabis is safe. Moore said that some women might use cannabis during pregnancy, thinking that these products offer a safe alternative to other medicines and even prescribed medications.
Moore begs to differ, with studies showing connections between marijuana use during pregnancy, low birth weight in babies, and behavioral problems later in childhood. Moore added that there might also be links between using marijuana by pregnant women to their children being obese and having higher blood sugar levels.
More women using cannabis during pregnancy in the United States
These findings are interesting, with more and more pregnant women using cannabis in the United States and other countries such as Canada in recent decades. Over 450,000 American women participated in a 2019 study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, with the federal institution finding cannabis use more than doubled among pregnant women between 2002 and 2017.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, past studies have shown the use of cannabis by pregnant women is linked to attention issues, abnormal neurological development, hyperactivity and autism, and other cognitive and behavioral issues in their children.
Expectant mothers who participated in the study were recruited in Colorado through Healthy Start, a national program designed to improve health outcomes before, during, and after pregnancy.
Out of the 103 women tested during pregnancy, 15 percent of them had detectable levels of various cannabinoids in their urine. Among the constituents found was THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), a chemical that is the main psychoactive compound in marijuana and is responsible for creating a "high" among users.
Cannabis use during pregnancy resulted in babies with low birth weight
Moore said they measured this during mid-pregnancy, meaning that the women knew they were very much pregnant and already past the first trimester, wherein cannabis is often used for their morning sickness.
Levels of CBD (cannabidiol) were also found in the urine of the women tested. The chemical CBD is being marketed online and over the counter as a safe and nonpsychoactive option for users to help them with their sleep, pain, anxiety, nausea, depression, and more. Many CBD products are derived from industrial hemp, which is a type of cannabis plant that has little THC, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.
The new study, recently published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, found expectant mothers who tested positive for cannabis use were more likely to have babies with low birth weight. Moore said that being underweight at birth puts these babies in danger of postnatal catch-up growth.
