disclaimer - my following comments are in no way certified fact, it's just something I've heard through the grapevine and I don't know all of the factors involved, nor do I know the woman involved personally.

A friend of mine has a friend who got pregnant. According to him she continued to smoke marijuana during pregnancy. According to him she had a coughing fit from a large bong toke that caused her water to break and give birth several months prematurely.

Granted I am no doctor and I don't know any of the other factors that may have been involved. I don't know if the smoking caused this and I have no way to verify the story itself. But I agree with WeedWitch's comments about the possible harm of inhaling the combusted components while pregnant.

Hopefully one day cannabis will be totally legal so that doctors and scientists can come to an informed conclusion about the possible harms or benefits.

I think putting anything into your body when pregnant effects the fetus. Why do you think they tell you not to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes? If you're stoned...your baby is stoned. Is that really what you want?

Actually, there is debate even within the medical/research community as to if/how much cannabis crosses the placental barrier and what (if any) psychoactive effects it has.

Would I want a stoned fetus? Not necessarily, but when faced with that possibility or losing the pregnancy due to hyperemesis, the choice isn't so cut and dry.

I suppose I'd rather have a stoned baby than a dead one, or one born without arms/legs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide

I'm sure most mothers would rather put nothing at all into their systems, but when you've got serious/pregnancy threatening health conditions, sometimes harm reduction is the name of the game.

Call me crazy, but I'd lean toward thousands of years of historically documented safe use (even in pregnancy, labor and delivery), than go with pharma when faced with the choice.

Do you really wanna chance it with the life you're creating? Why not just lay off the herb for nine months? What's the big deal?

Are you for real???
While I'm pretty sure I've laid it out quite plainly, I'm gonna give it another shot.

The BIG DEAL is I have several co-morbid health conditions for which the available pharma remedies cause birth defects or spontaneous abortion.

On top of this, I developed a rare condition early on in my pregnancy for which the baby (and/or I) could die without treatment.

I'm not smoking herb for recreational enjoyment here, dude. In fact, I am not even smoking herb at all. Any medicating I've done was with the complete support of my doctor; not a Cali "pot doc" either, a freakin' primary care physician specializing in women's health, prenatal care/labor and delivery and pediatrics. Her undergrad was in molecular biology.

Have you been to medical school? Perhaps you're a graduate student with 6 years of researching this topic under your belt?

If so, let's talk science. My Dean of Medical Research Yale-trained Boss wasn't able to find any statistically significant studies demonstrating fetal harm in the peer-reviewed literature, so I'm uber curious to see what you've got that might be new to the scientific community.

Not 'everyone' is in it to just get high jjp009

I realize that. I also realize that I'm not even going to attempt to reason or rationalize with this woman. Marijuana should not be ingested in any form while you are pregnant. Whether you use medically or to get high, the fetus does NOT have the opportunity of choice that you are making. Let him decide for himself when he's 18, until then, keep it out of the womb.

So you think that the pharma game is the better alternative because BP 'says' its safe ?

Good move.

The OP's question was about known effects to a fetus; you've responded with "you shouldn't do it."

You've voiced your opinion a stoned mom = a stoned fetus, even though medical professionals and scientists can't even agree on, nor document that position.

Maybe I juice... what about that? Research shows little to no psycho-activity to pass-on to anyone.

IMO, you haven't really tried to "reason with" or "rationalize" with anyone here, you've attempted to proselytize your personal morality, based on pure opinion.

The fetal choice argument applies to any/all substances consumed by a pregnant woman. Guess what? I don't give my unborn kid any options as to what other medicinal herbs I take, nor nutritional veggies I put in my morning smoothy. He didn't get options about the anti-biotics prescribed for the viral labrynthitis I developed in my first trimester, nor the second round I took for the severe kidney infection I had back in January. I've had iron deficient anemia and low protein throughout my pregnancy; my fetus didn't get the choice to consume red meat, or dairy, even though he might have wanted to be a vegan

That's the nature of being a fetus, completely dependent upon another's body, incapable of survival on one's own.

Since significant brain development/activity does not occur until the third trimester (again with the science), I'm not sure what choices he would have made at that point without the neurological capacity to do so.

Upon his birth, I have/get to choose whether or not he will receive Vitamin K to prevent against bleeding disorders. I'm not thrilled with his virgin gut being colonized with anything other than my natural antibodies, but have opted for oral drops, rather than the intramuscular shot, as it has been correlated with increased bleeding disorders. Again - HARM REDUCTION.

I also have the choice about the anti-biotic eye ointment administration when he's born. I am allergic to said antibiotics, so there's a strong likelyhood he will be too. I'm opting out of that, even though he may have to take an alternate treatment should he develop a bacterial eye infection. I'm making the best choice I can, using a risk/benefit analysis approach to the issue.

As he grows into a toddler, I have the choice about vaccines...

Point being, his father and I have a whole host of difficult choices regarding our child. These choices started upon conception and no matter how difficult, we must shoulder our parental responsibility as a matter of duty.

However, if you even think for one minute I make ANY decision related to this child I struggled to conceive for THIRTEEN YEARS uninformed or that I take any related decision lightly in any stretch of the imagination, you are plain wrong.

You also seem to ignore the fact there'd be no fetus to think about if I'd continued on without treatment. That's not an opinion, but a fact according to specialists with medical degrees and research backgrounds given the state my body was in shortly after conception.

Since my shoes are still sitting right here, I know you haven't taken two steps in them, let alone walked a mile. Gods forbid you'd ever be in a position to choose life or death for your unborn child while putting what anonymous internet posters might think about that choice before the current state of the available research on the topic!

I'm not here to try and convince anyone else on what their course of action should be relating to their pregnancy. I simply shared the difficult choice I made to try and carry my baby to term, rather than opt for in-utero death.

When/If my child asks, "mommy, why did you take MY choice away from me regarding cannabis consumption while you were pregnant?" I think I can feel secure in telling him, "because honey, Daddy and I tried to have you for roughly 1/3 of our lives; we really WANTED you and LOVED you even though we hadn't yet met you, and our doctors said it would be our best option to have you come out alive and healthy. I know that might not seem fair, but we made the best decision we could under the circumstances, given all the information we had at the time. We did the absolute best we could for you - then, now and always."

The scientific studies demonstrate Higher birth weights, and smarter, more relaxed, more productive children, of mothers who smoked cannabis during pregnancies. I'll stick to the science and leave the fear mongering on the side of the road.