Decisions, decisions, decisions: Spotlight on cannabis
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We make decisions every day, like what we will eat, wear and do. Some decisions are obviously more important than others and may even impact other people, such as deciding whether to get married or buy your first home.
Then you get pregnant and all of a sudden you’re making decisions that affect a tiny person who can’t make decisions for themselves. So how do you go about making those important decisions that affect your baby’s health and well-being? What if the choices are complicated and you aren’t sure what the ‘right’ decision is? Stay with us as we walk through decision-making step-by-step so that you can feel more confident in the decisions you make.
Before we get started, here are a few examples of the types of parenting decisions we are talking about.
- Lifestyle decisions, such as whether to:
- Decisions about medical interventions, such as whether to:
This list doesn’t even come close to covering all the things you’ll make decisions about as a parent. Did others pop into your head as you were reading the examples? Some days, even the small decisions may feel like big ones. When this happens, pause, take a few deep breaths, and know that the decisions you make are made with love and good intentions.
Now, on to what you can do before making a decision that will help you feel like you made the best decision for you and your growing family.
- Get reliable information.
- Not all sources of information are backed up by evidence. A great example of this is the Internet—lots of information is available online, but user beware! Here are some tips for ruling out sources of misinformation.
- Talk to your healthcare provider. Use the acronym BRA to help you remember to ask about Benefits, Risks, and Alternatives of whatever you’re trying to make a decision about.
- Think about how your situation and beliefs fit with the available options.
- Talk it over with your co-parent or support person(s).
Settle on a decision that is right for you and your growing family. What is ‘right’ for you and your situation may not be what is ‘right’ for others.
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Let’s take a closer look at using the BRA acronym with cannabis in pregnancy as the example. Cannabis is the most commonly used recreational drug during pregnancy, and with the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada many people are wondering if the number of users will go up. You may have even heard some conflicting messages about whether cannabis is safe to use in pregnancy, so let’s go through BRA together.
Remember, the BRA is a tool to use in conversation with your healthcare provider.
Benefits
People may choose to use cannabis for recreational or medical reasons. Some people say they use cannabis during pregnancy for:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Stress and anxiety
- Sleep issues
- Pre-existing medical conditions, such as epilepsy or chronic pain
Risks
In addition to the health effects on the user, research shows that cannabis in pregnancy may increase the risk of:
- Pre-term birth
- Lower birth weight
- Lower IQ scores
- Impulsivity and hyperactivity in childhood
- Learning, memory and problem-solving difficulties in teens and later in life
Another risk to think about is that cannabis could contain other unknown chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, moulds or bacteria that may cause additional risks (PDF).
It’s well accepted that using cannabis when you are under the age of 25 can affect your brain development. And if cannabis can affect the developing brain of teens and young adults, then it’s reasonable to think it could also affect the growing brain of a baby who isn’t born yet.
However, you may hear mixed messages about whether cannabis is safe to use in pregnancy. Unfortunately, good quality research about cannabis in pregnancy is hard to come by. Some of the reasons for limited or conflicting research include:
- The amount of THC (the chemical that makes you high) has increased from about 3% in the 1980s to about 15% today (some even as high as 30%). Studies done years ago may not have the same results if they were repeated today due to this increase in THC.
- When someone reports they used cannabis during pregnancy, it’s impossible to know the dose they took (e.g., there’s no way to know how much THC or CBD was in the joint they smoked or the brownie they ate).
- Most studies are retrospective, meaning people are asked about their past cannabis use. It’s hard to accurately recall the timing or how often cannabis was used in the past.
- There are about 400 chemicals in cannabis, so it’s hard to know what health effects are linked to which chemical.
- There could be other contaminants in cannabis that could also have negative health effects, such as other chemicals or moulds.
- People who are using cannabis may have other factors that could affect their pregnancy, such as poor nutrition, lack of medical care or tobacco use. This makes it hard to know if the research findings are related to cannabis use or the other factors (or a combination of the two).
- People may not accurately report how much cannabis they are using due to fear of being charged (when cannabis was illegal), judged or reported to Family and Children’s Services.
For all of these reasons, and maybe others we missed, it’s hard to figure out the exact effects of cannabis on an unborn baby. With the research available right now, what we can say with confidence is that there is no known safe amount of cannabis use in pregnancy.
Alternatives
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recommend using alternate therapies that are proven to be safe during pregnancy for medical purposes.
- Ask your healthcare provider about safer treatments for:
- Use other strategies for managing stress and improving your mental health.
- If you are having trouble quitting cannabis, talk to your healthcare provider or call Here 24/7 for addiction support.
- Not using cannabis is the only way to eliminate risks, but if this isn’t an option for you then talk to your healthcare provider about the lower-risk cannabis guidelines.
That is as far as we can take you on this journey for an answer about cannabis—the right answer for you is now for you to make. Remember that talking this through with your healthcare provider and your support person are also important parts of making an informed decision. For more information about cannabis, including cannabis use in pregnancy, breastfeeding and parenting, visit talkingaboutweed.ca.
If you have any questions about making informed decisions in pregnancy and parenting, call 1-800-265-7293 ext. 3616 to speak to one of our public health nurses.
More online at Public Health:
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