Researchers have found a link between marijuana use by expectant mothers and autism and childhood psychosis.
The US researchers looked at 322 mother-child pairs based in New York City who were part of a wider research project on stress in pregnancy.
“This new study supports a growing body of evidence that smoking cannabis during pregnancy is associated with adverse outcomes for women and their children,” Dr.
“We know from previous studies that using cannabis during pregnancy is linked to impaired fetal brain development, stillbirth, low birth weight, and pre-term birth.
Darine El-Chaâr, a maternal fetal medicine specialist and clinical investigator at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada, who was not involved in the research.
The authors said the study had a number of limitations, including being unable to verify the accuracy of cannabis use by the women, information which was supplied by the individuals involved in the study.
“This is a human study, and therefore there are many limitations since we could not get detailed information about, e.g., the history of cannabis use.
“THC has been found in breast milk for up to six days after the last recorded use,” the advisory stated.