Nobody does pregnancy like Rihanna.
In a new Vogue interview, the freshly crowned queen of maternity style, who is expecting her first baby with rapper A$AP Rocky, opens up about her life as a soon-to-be mom. From her pregnancy cravings — tangerines sprinkled with salt — to her mild brushes with morning sickness, the pop diva is happily breezing through her third trimester.
Still, the 34-year-old is candid about one big challenge: saying goodbye to marijuana.
“I was bracing myself for something insane because I knew I wouldn’t have my usual coping mechanism: I can’t just go and smoke a joint right now,” she told the magazine of riding out hormonal mood swings without her usual crutch.
Indeed, while some cannabis products are being marketed as morning sickness cures and more pregnant women are using the drug — a study by Kaiser health insurance in California found that the number of pregnant moms in the state using cannabis doubled between 2009 and 2016 — experts say Rihanna is right to abstain. Cannabis use during pregnancy is not considered safe, and most doctors advise against pot smoking while pregnant or breastfeeding.
“Most OB/GYNs will tell patients they really shouldn’t use marijuana during pregnancy,” Jennifer Wu, an OB/GYN at Lenox Hill Hospital, told The Post. “Research has shown that [marijuana] can lead to low birth weight and abnormal neurological development so you do really want to be careful about that.”
She said that contrary to some popular wisdom, “It does pass through the placenta and on to the baby. So you could be exposing the baby to these substances. You also want to be careful about second-hand smoke.”
Shawna Newman, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital/Northwell Health, told The Post: “There has been sufficient research indicating the deleterious effect of THC [the main psychoactive compound in marijuana that makes people feel high] on the fetus to strongly urge women planning to become pregnant [or who are pregnant already] to stop utilizing this substance.”
For this reason, Junella Chin, an integrative medical cannabis physician in Manhattan prescribes CBD – a trendy chemical found in marijuana that does not contain THC — to pregnant women suffering from severe morning sickness on a “case by case basis” depending on their health condition, saying that for some women suffering from severe nausea, the benefits can outweigh the risks.
“I think CBD is OK in moderation. If you have a smooth pregnancy, and you have terrible morning sickness and you’ve tried all the other types of remedies and it still doesn’t work – then I say it’s OK. You really have to weigh each case carefully,” Chin told The Post.
Wu, however, warned that pregnant women should be wary of CBD.
Instead, she suggests pregnant women should try therapy and meditation to help mitigate any prenatal anxiety.
Newman agrees. Her recommendations include “cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, mindfulness practice, walking and other gentle exercise, improving sleep hygiene as well as having a healthy approach to nutrition and hydration.”
Wu also said that women who plan to breastfeed should continue teetotaling after giving birth. “Marijuana does get into the breast milk so it is exposing the baby to marijuana after delivery. Again, you want to limit exposures for a newborn,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against consuming any pot-based products during pregnancy, stating that it can be harmful to a baby’s health because the chemicals – particularly THC – passing through the body to the baby could harm its development. More research, however, is needed, the CDC says, to better understand how exactly cannabis may impact a baby during pregnancy.
But sober soon-to-be mama Rihanna isn’t taking any chances. “I was pleasantly surprised that I’ve been able to manage,” she said.