During pregnancy and the breast feeding phase, doctors recommend avoiding consumption of marijuana. To further support this statement, researchers at Children's Hospital Colorado (Children's Colorado) have found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana stays in breast milk for up to six weeks. Also, according to American academies, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine continues to support Pediatrics advice of refraining from using marijuana during pregnancy and while the mother is breastfeeding. This is the first study since 1982’s New England Journal of Medicine study, which examined THC in breast milk and plasma in women with known marijuana use during pregnancy.
With the increase in consumption of marijuana in society at large levels, we are seeing more mothers use marijuana while pregnant, as said by Erica Wymore, MD, MPH, senior investigator, neonatologist at Children's Colorado and assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of University of Colorado of Medicine at Anschutz Medical Campus. However, given the lack of scientific data on how long THC stays in breast milk, it has been a challenge to give mothers a definitive answer on the safety of not using marijuana while breastfeeding and only dumping its consumption until the THC was no longer detectable in the milk. With this study, researchers wanted to determine the amount and duration of THC excretion in breast milk in women with known prenatal marijuana use. Panel data studies from the 1980s showed that children born to mothers who used marijuana during pregnancy had long-term problems with cognitive and executive functions, including impulsivity, as well as deficits in learning, sustained attention, and skills not related to the effects of marijuana on babies. It is a worthy of concern issue, especially, when we consider that current marijuana is five to six times more potent than it was before the recent legalization of marijuana in many states.
