BALTIMORE — Recreational marijuana is marketed as safer than the stuff bought off the street.
It's tracked and tested to make sure nothing is added that could be harmful but that doesn't mean it's safe, especially for pregnant women.
"They've seen that the children of these moms could be effected in terms of attention span, neuro development delays, smaller head circumference," said Doctor Aneesha Varrey - maternal and fetal medicine at GBMC.
Most of the data for these studies is of women who use more then marijuana, they could be smokers or drink while pregnant.
"So it's always been hard to really just identify women who have only been taking THC especially since it's been illegal for so long that women aren't honest about if they've been using or how much they've been using," said Dr. Varrey.
One of the positives doctors expect to see is women will be more open to saying if they've been using marijuana since it's not illegal to use recreationally. This could lead to better studies and better understanding of the impacts of marijuana.
"We don't recommend using cannabis during the pregnancy so even with the laws changing, the data doesn't change so anytime there's a woman who comes in who has been using I encourage her to stop," said Dr. Varrey.
The impacts of using cannabis don't stop when the baby is born -- especially for those breastfeeding.
"We don't have excellent data of what is the effect on breastfeeding, but because you see there is an increased concentration in the breast milk, we know that it is going to the baby," said Dr. Varrey.
The best practice is to stop using marijuana during the pregnancy.
Doctor Varrey says to be open with your doctor about your usage so they can best help you and your child.
