According to the latest reports, there’s a combination of cannabis and nicotine that could boost the infant death risks. Check out the latest worrisome reports about this below.
Cannabis-nicotine mix’s dangers revealed
Pregnant women who use both cannabis and nicotine have a four times higher risk of infant death than those who use either substance alone, according to a recent study.
“Our findings suggest that avoiding use of just one of these substances can decrease the pregnancy risks we see when both substances are used together, which is a critical piece of information providers can highlight when counseling patients,” Dr. Adam Crosland, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine and the study’s lead author, said in a press release.
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, prenatal cannabis use has become more common than ever before, with up to 30 percent of pregnant women in younger, urban populations using the drug.
The same study found that infants born to mothers who used both cannabis and nicotine during pregnancy were more likely to be underweight and premature at birth.
“With the growing legalization of cannabis around the country, there is often a perception that cannabis is safe in pregnancy,” Dr. Jamie Lo, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at OHSU, said.
“Because we know that many people who use cannabis often use tobacco or nicotine products, we wanted to better understand the potential health implications on both the pregnant individual and the infant.”
The research team evaluated hospital discharge data and vital statistics of over 3 million pregnant patients between 2012 and 2019, who used cannabis and nicotine during their pregnancies.
The average age of the pregnant women was 29 years. Less than 1 percent of women used cannabis, almost 2 percent used nicotine during pregnancy, and 0.3 percent used both substances.
Important data revealed
Compared to pregnant women who do not use cannabis or nicotine, those who use either cannabis or nicotine alone have higher rates of negative outcomes for their babies.
These outcomes include infant death, which is a live birth that results in death within the first year (0.7 percent), neonatal death, which is the death of a baby in the first 28 days of life (0.3 percent), having a baby that is too small for its gestational age (14.3 percent for cannabis, 13.7 percent for nicotine), and preterm delivery before 37 weeks (12.2 percent for cannabis, 12 percent for nicotine).
The risks were even higher for pregnant women who used both cannabis and nicotine together, according to the notes.
“Infant death risk was two times higher
Neonatal death rate was also two times higher
Having an underweight baby was 18 percent more likely
Preterm delivery was 17.5 percent more likely”
The risk is significantly higher because cannabis use exacerbates the negative impacts of nicotine, according to the research team. We suggest that you check out the original press release in order to learn more details about this.
