The Effects of Alcohol vs Marijuana on a Fetus
Uploaded by Hockey Nat on Nov 26, 2005
The development of a child in its mother’s womb is affected by everything she consumes and inhales. All the nourishment is provided in all the vitamins, minerals, and important foods that she eats. So too are toxins. While this is not truly “providing” for the child, it is still affecting its growth and development in negative ways. The smoking of marijuana can affect the future behavior of the child while alcohol can cause severe physical abnormalities. These can be detrimental to a child and a burden for the parents for a lifetime. The following describes and explains the effects of cannabis and alcohol to a developing child in its mother’s womb.
Cannabis, weed, stink, and dank are just a few words to describe marijuana these days. Along with the creative names come even more potent hybrids of this illegal substance. These more certainly have the varying effects on the growing fetus of a mother that so chooses to smoke marijuana while she conceives and is pregnant. It’s bad to say that one substance is better than another when it comes to the malfunctioned development of a child, but it seems that the effects of marijuana pale in comparison to alcohol.
Many studies have been conducted concerning the effects of marijuana on a child while in the mother's womb and after being born. Dr. Beth Nordstrom acknowledges one of the lasting effects of marijuana when she states that, “Children prenatally exposed to marijuana are two times more likely than unexposed children to rail a standard hearing test by age 7” (Brunk p. 1). Upon further research, many hearing deficiencies were addressed as well as success in the classroom. Dr. Nordstrom adds that, “…children exposed to marijuana throughout pregnancy were nearly three times more likely to experience school-age hearing problems than children exposed to the drug around the time of conceptions only” (p. 1).
Hearing loss can be addressed and dealt with if income level allows. These victims of their mothers’ enjoyment will have problems if the problem is not addressed. Children who suffer from hearing problems tend to have difficulties in the classroom due to the simple fact that they are not hearing sounds correctly. Speech may be impeded thus leading the child to develop a lisp. The child may have to spend time with a speech therapist to rectify the problem (if it can be). These children may have difficulties with peers that...