美国国家公共电台 NPR Is Smoking Pot While Pregnant Safe For The Baby?

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This month, California became the world's largest jurisdiction¹ with broad legal access to marijuana. Adults in this state can now buy marijuana without a doctor's prescription². But as Sarah Varney reports, obstetricians here are worried about pregnant women getting the wrong message.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Please, Mommy.

SARAH VARNEY, BYLINE³: Two-year-old Maverick⁴ Hawkins sits on a red, plastic car in his grandmother's living room in Nevada City, a picturesque⁵ town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. His play pal⁶ Delilah Smith snacks on hummus and delights over her Princess Peppa stuffie.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: I'm Princess Peppa (oinking).

VARNEY: It's playtime for the kids of the provocatively⁷ named Facebook group Pot Smoking Moms Who Cuss Sometimes. Maverick's mother, Jenna Sauter, started the group after he was born. She was 22 at the time and feeling lonely and depressed⁸.

JENNA SAUTER: I didn't want to have to, like, hide who I was, you know. I wanted it to be, like, you know, friends who I could be open with, you know, and be like, well, I do this, I do this, I enjoy going into river. I like to maybe smoke a joint⁹ at the river.

VARNEY: There are nearly 2,600 members now in the Facebook group. Marijuana is offered up as a harmless remedy for everything from morning sickness to postpartum depression. Delilah's mom is Andria Smith. She's 21 and a week away from her due date with her second child. She bristled¹⁰ recently at a doctor's suggestion that she take half a Norco, a powerful pain pill, for her back pain instead of smoking pot.

ANDRIA SMITH: She's like, well, we know more about Norco and blah, blah, blah, and we don't know that much about marijuana. I was like, my kid can count to 10 before she was even 2, and I smoked pot through my whole pregnancy¹¹. She's not stupid.

VARNEY: Smith is not smoking in her third trimester because she doesn't want her baby to test positive for pot. The drug's psychoactive compounds cross the placenta, exposing the fetus¹² to at least 10 percent of the THC that the mother receives. It's unclear how many pregnant women in the United States use marijuana. They may be reluctant to tell their doctors since it's considered child abuse in at least 24 states. But studies show a sharp jump in pot use among pregnant women. Dr. Dana Gosset, an obstetrician at the University of California, San Francisco, says marijuana adversely¹³ affects how a baby's brain develops.

DANA GOSSET: Children who have been exposed to marijuana while growing in the womb have poorer performance on visual-motor coordination¹⁴, visual tasks.

VARNEY: Like catching¹⁵ a ball or solving puzzles.

GOSSET: They may have behavioral problems at higher rates than other children by the age of 14, and interestingly, they are at greater risk for initiating¹⁶ marijuana use, and that is biologically plausible¹⁷ because the effects of the THC in the brain may actually prime that child for addictive¹⁸ behavior, not just to marijuana but potentially to alcohol as well.

VARNEY: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warns breastfeeding moms to avoid pot exposure since some amount of THC passes into the baby. But to Andria Smith's conviction that her daughter Delilah is just as smart as her peers, studies show that children exposed to marijuana in utero don't score worse on reading or math as they get older.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Phew.

VARNEY: Back in Nevada City, the play date of Pot Smoking Moms Who Sometimes Cuss, has moved outside.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: All right. Where were we?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I want up.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: You want up?

VARNEY: Sauter says parents are uncertain if they'll get in trouble using pot now in California. Indeed, child protection laws in most states remain at odds¹⁹ with liberal marijuana laws. Sauter and Andria Smith both had babies who tested positive for THC just after birth and were visited at home by county social services. Though now they never smoke in front of their children. Sauter says some moms on her Facebook page won't go to the doctor even when they're sick.

SAUTER: They don't want to get tested, and that's dangerous. I mean, you got to be honest because if, like, something does go wrong, we got to know.

VARNEY: Obstetricians don't endorse²⁰ mandatory²¹ testing of pregnant women or newborn babies for THC over concerns that women could be jailed or their babies taken away. But with recreational cannabis now legal in eight states, physicians like Gosset are worried that young children whose brains are rapidly developing will inhale²² pot smoke in their homes and come to know the world in an altered state. I'm Sarah Varney in Nevada City, Calif.

GREENE: And Sarah is with our partner, Kaiser Health News.

1 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

2 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 maverick   

adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者

参考例句：

• He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
• You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人，样样事情都要尝试一下。

5 picturesque   

adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的

参考例句：

• You can see the picturesque shores beside the river.在河边你可以看到景色如画的两岸。
• That was a picturesque phrase.那是一个形象化的说法。

6 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

7 provocatively   

参考例句：

• Democracy or dictatorship, the golden ships still hung in the sky and shone provocatively. 民主也好，独裁也罢，那些金晃晃的飞船依然高悬天际，闪熠发光，向我们挑衅。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

8 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

9 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

10 bristled   

adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• They bristled at his denigrating description of their activities. 听到他在污蔑他们的活动，他们都怒发冲冠。
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。

11 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

12 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

13 adversely   

ad.有害地

参考例句：

• We commented adversely upon the imbecility of that message of telegraphic style. 我们对着这条电报式的愚蠢的留言发泄了一通不满。
• Widely fluctuating exchange rates may adversely affect international trade. 浮动幅度很大的汇率可能会对国际贸易产生有害的影响。

14 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

15 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

16 initiating   

v.开始( initiate的现在分词 )；传授；发起；接纳新成员

参考例句：

• He is good at initiating projects but rarely follows through with anything. 他善于创建项目，但难得坚持完成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Only the perchlorate shows marked sensitiveness and possibly initiating properties. 只有高氯酸盐表现有显著的感度和可能具有起爆性能。 来自辞典例句

17 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

18 addictive   

adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的

参考例句：

• The problem with video game is that they're addictive.电子游戏机的问题在于它们会使人上瘾。
• Cigarettes are highly addictive.香烟很容易使人上瘾。

19 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

20 endorse   

vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意

参考例句：

• No one is foolish enough to endorse it.没有哪个人会傻得赞成它。
• I fully endorse your opinions on this subject.我完全拥护你对此课题的主张。

21 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

22 inhale   

v.吸入(气体等)，吸(烟)

参考例句：

• Don't inhale dust into your lung.别把灰尘吸进肺里。
• They are pleased to not inhale second hand smoke.他们很高兴他们再也不会吸到二手烟了。