I beg your pardon!?

Over at the granola-crunchy mother-advice site, there's been some speculation about whether to use Marijuana (or MJ, as they put it) while pregnant / in labor... Most of these oh-so-concerned parents seem to think that it's NOT ok to vaccinate your children, but it's fine to smoke weed while you're pregnant. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Uh, I'm sorry, folks, but I guess I'm just old-fashioned about this type of thing... While (in the words of one poster) "it's not crack, so I don't understand the big deal", it's a substance that, so far, has not been studied long enough or well enough to unequivocably state that there will be no harm done to the child. Further, it's STILL an illegal substance. Further STILL - it's one thing to do it on your own, but that's YOUR choice for YOU. When you decide to smoke something that chemically alters your body, and you are pregnant, you are being completely selfish. The baby has NO say in whether IT wants to do that sort of thing. It's not like you can ask it and have it unhook the umbilical cord while you're high.

The thing that gets me is the over-all nonchalance about it. It's not a "big deal" because it's not crack. OK. Fine - it's still an illegal substance that chemically alters your brain and body - have you thought about what it's doing to the baby? Do you still HAVE brain cells left? There's a reason why, beyond the whole "Fetal alcohol syndrome" thing, I'm not drinking while I'm pregnant. It's because my child has no choice in the matter - and I'm not going to force something that could possibly be a toxin into my child's system without their knowledge or consent.

These are people who believe that vaccinations cause such things as ADHD / ADD, high-functioning Autism, as well as other mental and physical issues... Yet they're willing to risk their unborn child in order to have a toke?

Some of the posters said that their Midwives suggested it to help with morning sickness... If your morning sickness is honestly THAT bad, you should be in with a doctor. Period. Other people have said their midwifes suggested toking as they started "hard labor", to help with the pain and the contractions. Unless I'm mistaken, about 85% of those who CAN smoke MJ, end up doing so to relax... If it relaxes the contractions, doesn't that mean that the contractions are going to stop? Which is NOT what people want to have happen? And btw, the baby is STILL going to get the effects of the THC, which means they could be non-responsive once they ARE born... and if they're like me or Fred, who are allergic to it, you may have given them their first asthma attack. Congratulations! You, you and you - OUTTA THE GENE POOL!!! Quit breeding, dammit!

~M

**Update**

So, there've already been some responses regarding this on the granola-crunch group. One of the best happened to be the person who suggested that "obviously" since I was against a "natural" substance like MJ, I "must" be making sure that I didn't eat anything with ANY chemicals, pesticides, etc... blah, blah, blah. This person called me a troll for posting my own opinion on the original post, which was, to be precise, whether anyone had heard anything positive or negative regarding toking while going through labor. Another person suggested that the ONLY thing I was worried about was the legality of the situation, which again, was ignoring a lot of the rest of the post. Still another poster was adamant that they NOT see a doctor about severe morning sickness because they didn't want to be on anything "unnatural", and that my attitude was not going to win me any friends on the forum, since I was so against using "natural" substances.

Yeah - and this is where I point out that all of these posters are anti-vaccination, anti-doctor, and pro-natural people, who believe that each living entity, including their unborn child, have individual choices they should be able to make - except, of course, in smoking a chemical-altering substance, at which point apparently all bets are off, because at that point, it's something "natural", unlike aspirin (willowbark, anyone?) or drugs that would be made in a laboratory (that have had been proven effective without doing harm to the unborn child).

These are people who feel that it's important to allow their growing children to be given choices to make, to interact with them, to make them feel a part of the community that they are growing up in (insert warm - fuzzy feelings everywhere). I have no idea how they managed to get their unborn child to talk to them and let them know that it was two thumbs up and a pinkie toe to smoke pot. I'm pretty in tuned with my body, and I know what's going on most days, but I still haven't been able to make the little podling talk to me, more's the pity. It must be something in the brownies they eat...

Oh - in case you're interested, here are a few links that have some interesting information regarding marijuana and fetal development...

Safe Fetus.com

Effects of Marijuana

Environmental Causes of Birth Defects

The overall consensus? Experts advise pregnant women to avoid marijuana, because its dangers are still unknown. There have simply not been enough studies at this time to determine whether something that occurs "naturally" is going to be ok... I mean, let's get serious - mercury occurs naturally in the world, too, but you won't see me swilling it, either.

~M