In the article, “A Balm When You’re Expecting: Sometimes Pot Does the Trick” by Catherine Saint Louis, a few women shared their stories of using marijuana throughout their pregnancies. Each of the 5 women explained why and how often they used marijuana, whether they informed their doctor or midwife about their use of marijuana, and if they were concerned about the effects it could possibly have on their baby and themselves. This article confronts the question, does the benefits outweigh the costs of using marijuana during pregnancy. I don’t believe women should use Marijuana throughout their pregnancy.

Almost all the women justified their use of marijuana by claiming it helped them cope with their pregnancy symptoms. Majority used marijuana to get rid of nausea, but some also used it for headaches, cramps, back pain, and stress. Four out of Five of the women did not inform there doctors of their use of marijuana, yet used it for “medicinal” reasons. Margaret, 38, stated that the medication, Zofran, her doctor prescribed her for nausea was unnatural while marijuana is natural. Also 50 year old Diana believed smoking marijuana would only affect her lungs and not her baby. Although, some of them did their research on the consequences of using marijuana they still tried to find reasons to convince themselves that the benefits out weight the costs. The author provided facts at the end of their stories explaining that marijuana can affect the baby’s weight and cause cognitive issues which invalidate their reason.

All of the women who shared their story gave birth to healthy babies. Since none of their babies had any health issues it further influences them that there isn’t much danger to using marijuana. Some of the women used marijuana on more than one of their pregnancies and had no issues. This facts makes readers look at both sides of the story and causes the audience to make their own decision on whether it’s worth using marijuana while pregnant. In my opinion, I just think that they were lucky, but some people aren’t as lucky and because of their choice of using marijuana during pregnancies caused harm to their baby.

Some of the women addressed whether they were worried about the effects marijuana may have on the baby or themselves. Some of them did not care or take the consequence of using marijuana while being pregnant serious. For instance, Margaret found out that women received calls from child protection services because of using marijuana during their pregnancies. She stated “ This is my white privilege talking, but I really didn’t think it could happen to me.” (page 3) . Even thought she knows she can get in trouble with the law, she still continued to use it and assumed that she wouldn’t be caught because she was white. That isn’t the right way to look at things. Many people believe they won’t get caught doing that wrong thing but later on get caught. Tycia, also stated “ just about everyone I know smokes or uses it in some form, so I feel it’s O.K” (page 9). Just because you see the people around you doing something that doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing for you to do.

This article was mainly a narrative with a little touch of informative. The stories of the women gave us readers an insight of the experience and why some women use marijuana while pregnant. In the article, the author threw in a few facts that went against the reasons some of the women said to justify their marijuana usage, which made her a little bit of a devil’s advocate. The author playing the role of a devil’s advocate was creative and made me think for myself on what stance I want to take.Louis did not put her opinion or present whether she is for or against marijuana usage of pregnant women. As a result the readers have to decide whether they are for or against it based off the information provided. Before reading the article, I assumed that the author was for marijuana usage, but once I read the article the author didn’t have a stance. So, in my opinion the authors title was a bit misleading. I also wished the author included a doctors point of view on pregnant women using marijuana, to give readers what a person in the medical profession thinks about this topic. This article was very simple to read and understand which means anyone can read this article. There are a few things I wish the author could have included but overall I enjoyed reading this article.