Can Marijuana cause birth defects?

Kathi, were any of your problems or your son's problems birth defects or anything vestibular/deafness related? If you don't mind sharing, that is...

 

No, his problems are more mental and emotional. He also has dyslexia and learning disabilities. He is now 35 and lives in a sheltered setting.

My problems that are related to the drugs my mother took are all gynocological.

Kathi

 

I remember my mom telling me once about the Thalydimyd (sp?) babies ... so sad.

 

Kathi, did your mom take DES? Lots of womyn our age were effected by it. My mother "couldn't remember" if she took it (but she did have some miscarraiges, which is one of the things it was prescribed for) and I have a malformed pelvis.

Luckily, Cher, Thalidomide was NEVER FDA approved in the USA. Bayer tried to get it approved several times and the FDA said they were "suspicious" of it's saftey, so it was never used or prescribed in the USA. MANY children were saved by this action, sometimes the system DOES work. However, the drug was used and approved in Canada, Australia, England and Germany. (Germany is the home of Bayer and is known for approving several dangerous drugs.)

 

Yes, DES is what she took. I thought she took it for morning sickness. But she also had a miscarriage a year before I was born. I've had lots of bleeding issues. Hemorraging on at least 2 occasions for no apparent reason. Recently had a bout where they thought I had uterine cancer. Was bleeding for months. They did a D & C to stop the bleeding. But it got worse. Turns out that the progesterone that they put me on to stop the bleeding was causing worse bleeding. Once I got off of it, the bleeding stopped. The good news is no sign of cancer.

My daughter has problems too. She currently has been trying to conceive for over a year. She's had three early miscarriages during that time. She has two healthy children, but can't seem to conceive again.

Kathi

 

It wasn't back then, but it is now:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/answers/ans00887.html
http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/8eee2.htm
http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/autoimmune/a/042603.htm

There are now SERIOUS restrictions on it's use, to prevent anyone who is pregnant from being exposed to it, but it IS currently an FDA approved drug in the US.

 

Yes, Ellis, I did hear about that, and forgot. Thank you for bringing it up. Like you said, it is VERY carefully prescribed, to avoid it being given to a pregnant womyn, kind of like what they do with Accutane.

Kathi, DES can cause problems with the reproductive tract. It may well be that your recent problems were DES related. Did your doctor ask if you were a DES Daughter? The regular progesterone they use to stop miscarraiges in the past 30 years or so has no track record of doing anything similar. Although, if YOU are a DES daughter, it may have had reprecussions on your child. I am thinking, however, that it is most likely not related. I hope she can conceive soon.

I am also so glad you are healthy now, that was quite a scare.

Love and hugs,

Maggie

 

Thanks Maggie, It was pretty scarey for a while. And the hormones have been so off the wall. Bouncing all over the place. Emotionally I've been a wreck. But that's all starting to settle down now.

You know, until I posted on here about the DES, I didn't even think about it. It could be part of what is causing my daughter's problems. I'll have to email her.

Kathi

 

im 8 months pregnant iv lost so much weight and been on iv drips from throwing up so much, noting the Dr gives me helps the fucking nausa the constint sickness just makes life hell. the only thing that can stop me throwing up every 10 minutes is pot i throw up so much by the end is all just blood its so fucked if it wasnt for pot i dont think i would have this baby they would of aborted for sure. its given me so much worrie and guilt. every time i have a bong to stop throwing up i think im the worst uncaring person, its just all so fucked up i could never think i could be so sick. and i never knew what a life saver pot.

 

has your doctor tried Zofran?

 

WOW!
I am impressed that anyone knew this! I had to obtain a special liscense to purchase and dispense Thalomid, and am one of the few places that has it available in this city. On top of that, each time I dispense it I have to obtain a WRITTEN prescription, no phone in or faxes, and then call the drug registry to obtain an authorization number to dispense the drug, and then call & confirm that it was in fact dispensed. The patient must submit to pregnancy screens, if female, and sign a consent form. The drug package shows pictures of the horrible birth defects caused by the drug, which most commonly include hands but no arms, & feet but no legs.

Anyway, sorry for being off topic, but this really impressed me . . .

I am a pharmacy nerd!

 

Erin, if Zofran is available in Australia, I would definately ask your doctor for it! I use it occasionally for severe nausea and emesis from my migrianes. It is terribly expensive, but if it is the only thing which works, and it often is, it is worth it.

Talk to your doctor about it. Maybe you can import it, if it isn't avaiable. Does Aus have a National Health Care for medications?

 

Wow, Tom, who I doubt will ever give birth, you're really assuming a lot here. First, you're assuming that anyone who uses ganja while they're pregnant is always smoking it. (As opposed to eating and drinking it.) Then, it sounds like you think they're smoking it in the same quantities as a cigarette smoker smokes tobacco (not likely), then you're assuming that ganja and tobacco affect people in the same way. Definitely bogus.

Withdrawals? Convulsions? Because their mom smoked weed? Crack, maybe, or heroine, but weed? NO.

Not only that, but it's been shown that the babies of Rasta women who do continue to use herb during their pregnancy are slightly heavier, not smaller. There's a study that my friends like to quote. I don't have the details here with me. I didn't know I'd stumble upon this topic today.

I do know that I have known many Rasta women for years. I have watched our children grow up. One would think that, with all my experience watching Rasta women have kids, I would have seen some remarkable birth defects by now. Nope.

When I was pregnant with my first kid I got outrageous morning sickness. When I woke up in the morning, before I even had a chance to open my eyes, I would start vomiting violently. My whole body would move without my control. When nothing was left I would still be heaving. It wouldn't end. My baby's dad begged me to try one draw of weed for my nausea. One draw did it. With one draw I went from my whole body uncontrollably, violently heaving, to being just fine for the rest of the day. When the 'morning sickness' (it really happened whenever it wanted to, it was just worst in the morning) ended, I stopped getting red. No withdrawal. No big deal.

Where did you get the idea that herb and tobacco were the same? That is loopy.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. So far (I'm only on page 4 or something) I haven't heard anybody say "EVERY PREGNANT WOMAN SHOULD SMOKE WEED CONSTANTLY!" Even though yourcousin smoked pot while she was pregnant, and the baby was born with a condition, that doesn't mean that one cause the other.

 

Nobody on here said "pot is natural it can't be harmful"

 

The drugs they gave me in the hospital for nausea had horrible side effects.

Horrible side effects or one draw of herb. Let me think....

 

Actually Levi as far as the smoking part of it they are the same. The intoxicants that come from "smoking" are the same no matter what you are smoking. However, as you said people are not smoking the same quanitites of pot as they do cigarettes. Most people are not up to a two or three pack a day habit with weed. So they are not getting any where near the quantity of smoke in their systems as cigarette smokers do. Believe me I have been working in this field for 6 and 1/2 years now and I have never seen a baby within draw from weed. I have also never seen a birth defect from weed. I'm not saying it can't happen, but I've never seen it. I have however, dealt with babies withdrawing from heroin, cocaine, alcohol, pcp, barbituates. It's not a pretty sight. And the birth defects from alcohol are horrible life long effects.

And like I said in a previous post, I suffered horrible morning sickness. I wish I had had a bit of weed to help at the time. But I didn't so I took the drugs the doctor gave me. Who knows how much they added to my son's problems.

Kathi

 

You know, I should ask my mom what kind of stuff she was given to take while she was pregnant with me. Maybe she took some kind of other medicine from the docs and THAT is what caused my birth defect, not the weed. I'll let you guys know what she says.

 

As much as modern AmeriKKKan society needs to find something to "blame" for anything that goes wrong, some birth defects have always been with us, and always will, drugs or no drugs, proper prenatal care or not, rich or poor, whatever.

The intricacies of human development are only somewhat understood. Under the right set of circumstances, all it would take is an errant cosmic ray passing through the wrong cells at the wrong time and knocking the DNA apart to cause a mutation with resulting birth defects.

While human-produced teratogenic influences certainly need to be identified and reduced wherever possible, there isn't anything you are going to do about a certain percentage of birth defects. Whether you want to call it fate, bad luck, unfortunate coincidence, or an "Act of God", sometimes "shit happens", and expending a huge amount of energy looking for someone or something (including yourself) to "blame" just makes an already bad situation worse.

 

I was more or less trying to find out for my mom's sake. She feels guilty because she feels like her smoking the weed while she was pregnant with me is what caused my birth defects in my ears. Since it is apparently not that, I wanted to be able to present her with something that it COULD be, that's all. It's hard for any parent to accept something like that, and while she would certainly be willing to accept that maybe shit happened and that's that, it would be nice to explore all possibilities in case there happens to be somethign specific that DID cause it. It's just for her peace of mind, if anything.

As for myself, I could really care less if I have someone or something to blame for my birth defects. I just wanna know out of curiosity.