Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

The prevalence of cannabis use reported among pregnant individuals in the United States is increasing, 2002–2020

Journal of Perinatology volume 43, pages 387–389 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

A Correction to this article was published on 24 April 2023

This article has been updated

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology recommends discontinuing cannabis use during pregnancy because of concerns that cannabis exposure could cause adverse maternal and fetal outcomes [1]. Despite potential risks, the US prevalence of cannabis use during pregnancy increased from 2002 to 2014 [2]. During the same period, the prevalence of alcohol use during pregnancy decreased [3]. Continuing to monitor these trends, identifying patterns of cannabis during pregnancy, and examining co-use of cannabis with alcohol—a well-known teratogen, will help inform public health and clinical interventions.

We used data from the 2002–2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to estimate trends in the prevalence of self-reported cannabis use among pregnant and non-pregnant reproductive aged individuals. We stratified prevalence estimates among pregnant individuals by trimester and by co-alcohol use, and using the most recently available data from 2020, we describe frequency of use, availability of cannabis, and source of cannabis last consumed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: US trends in cannabis and alcohol use among pregnant individuals from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2002–2020.

Data availability

All data are publicly available. We used the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) analyze data tool to run our analyses. This tool is available at: https://www.datafiles.samhsa.gov/analyze-data.

Change history

References

  1. Committee Opinion No. 722: Marijuana use during pregnancy and lactation. Obstet Gynecol. 2017;130:e205–e209. https://doi.org/10.1097/AOG.0000000000002354.

  2. Brown QL, Sarvet AL, Shmulewitz D, Martins SS, Wall MM, Hasin DS. Trends in Marijuana Use Among Pregnant and Nonpregnant Reproductive-Aged Women, 2002-2014. JAMA. 2017;317:207 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.17383.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Hasin DS, Shmulewitz D, Keyes K. Alcohol use and binge drinking among US men, pregnant and non-pregnant women ages 18–44: 2002–2017. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2019;205:107590.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. (2018). National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2002-2020 (NSDUH-2002-2020-DS0001).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92123, USA

    Shana Hayes, Erin Delker & Gretchen Bandoli

Authors
  1. Shana Hayes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Erin Delker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gretchen Bandoli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

SH performed data analysis, drafted the initial manuscript, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. GB conceptualized and designed the study, and critically reviewed the manuscript. ED assisted with study design, assisted with data analysis, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gretchen Bandoli.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original online version of this article was revised: The authors noticed in the published version of the paper that a footnote that was once attached to our Figure 1 did not make it into the version we submitted to the journal. We think that the footnote is necessary. Without it, the reader would assume that the plotted estimates are per year and they would not be able to replicate the figures give the same data.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hayes, S., Delker, E. & Bandoli, G. The prevalence of cannabis use reported among pregnant individuals in the United States is increasing, 2002–2020. J Perinatol 43, 387–389 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01550-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01550-y

Search

Advanced search

Quick links