An Ethnographic Study - Comitas Institute for Anthropological Study

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Pre n a ta l Mariju;:ma Exposure and Neonatal Outco mes An Ethnographic Study

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y!elanie C Dreher, PhD: Kevin :\uge nt, PhD; and Rebekan Hudgins. :vIA ABSTRACT. Objective. To idt!ntify neu(obeh.lViofal effects of prenatal marijuana expos u re on neonJ,tes in ru r.11 Jamaica. Design. Ethnographic field s tudies and s tandardiz ed neurobeh.lVior assess ments during the neona tal period. Setting. Rural Jamaica in helvy-m.lrijuana-using popul.ltio n . Participant s. Twenty- four Jam ai ca n neonates e .~ · posed to m.uijuana prenatally and 20 non expo sed neonate s. l\-tea Sllrem ents and mai" res lilts. Exposed and none .'( posed neonates were co mpared at 3 d a ys and 1 month old, using the Brazelton Neonatal Assess ment Scale, induding s upplementary items · to captu re possible s ubtle effects. There we re no sigri'ificJ nt differences between ex· posed and non e xposed neo n.l[es on day 3, At 1 month , the exposed neo nates sho wed bette r physiologicJI stability and required less examiner facil itation to reach organized s tat es. The neo nate s o f heavy-mJ.rijua na-u sing mothers had better sco res o n autonomic st.Jb ility, q uality of a lert ness, irritability, and self·regula tion and were judged to b e more reward in g fo r caregivers. Concillsions . The absence ot any differences between th e exposed on nonexposed groups in the early neonatal period sugges t that the better sco reS of exposed neonates .It 1 mo n th .ln~ traceable to the cultu ral positi onin g and socia l .lnd ~co nomic cha ra cteristics of mothers usin g mariju an.) that se lect fo r the use of mariju.lna but also promote neonatal developm~nt. Pei! i(ltrics 1994;93:25':ho01