How marijuana exposure harms your newborn

Puff may be a magic dragon -- but despite the flowerchild message of that 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary hit, it’s all evil magic when you consider the effects of marijuana on the health of a newborn.

Unfortunately, more women are smoking marijuana and more are doing it while pregnant. A 2019 study in JAMA Open found that over the past eight years, the number of women who’d smoked pot in the year before they became pregnant had almost doubled to 12.5%, and nearly 3.5% of women were smoking while pregnant.

Whatever the number has become today, with increased legalization and pandemic blues, it’s too high (pun intended).

Research published in JAMA Open Network looked at data on more than 59,000 women and found that newborns whose moms were exposed to marijuana while pregnant (smoky rooms count, too!) were at risk for low birth weight and being small for their gestational age; being born preterm; being admitted to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit); having a smaller head circumference; and having a lower Apgar score (assessing breathing, heart rate, muscle tone, reflexes and skin color) at one minute postbirth.

Those health challenges are similar to what happens to children affected by fetal alcohol syndrome (from Mom drinking while pregnant). These kids, born after in-utero exposure to marijuana or alcohol often have feeding problems, asthma and increased risk of infection, as well as visual, hearing, learning and behavioral problems.

So, do your child a favor and “tune in, listen up and skip the pot.”