When you are a soon-to-be parent, you likely worry about the well being of your child. Your instincts are kicking off after all, but that is a really good thing. But in this case, you might start to wonder…
What happens when you use CBD oil while breastfeeding?
What Is In CBD Oil?
First, you need to take care of yourself. If you aren’t consuming good things, then you won’t be able to give that to your child either, which is why you need to know what is going on inside your own body.
The main thing is marijuana or hemp. Both of these are hallucinogens by themselves, which wouldn’t be great for a new mother, much less the baby. Thankfully though, CBD oil is made in a way, so it becomes a non-psychoactive, which means that you will not become “high,” and you will not experience any cloudiness in your mind. All CBD oil is supposed to do is relax you and ease the pain.
Because of this, the traces of marijuana and hemp aren’t harmful in any way.
Besides those, there isn’t much to talk about, as the ingredients vary from brand to brand. If you want to make sure there’s nothing toxic in your CBD, then you need to look up what you are exactly consuming and look through the ingredients.
Why Would a Mother Use CBD Oil During or After Pregnancy?
There are way too many reasons why women would need such a thing during pregnancy. All of them put a lot of pressure on the soon-to-be mothers, and they have a limited amount of things they can do about it.
Stress
This is one of the main reasons why many people use CBD. It can calm your nerves and help you through stressful times easily. And you only need to take a little bit for it to be impacting.
Mothers are under a ton of stress, and most of the time, they aren’t even showing it because of pride or because they don’t want to be seen as a bad mother. (You are not a bad mother for being overwhelmed during pregnancy, let’s just put that out there.) So what can they do?
Taking medicine for it is seen as a bad thing because the fetus receives some of it and many people view that as a negative thing. Doing nothing will eventually eat up the poor mother.
So there’s CBD. Natural, strong and starts working shortly after being taken. What else could mothers ask for?
Be sure to also check out “From Hit to Kick: Time For CBD Oil to Take Effect” to see how different kinds of CBD products take longer than others to take effect.
Back/breast/leg pain
During pregnancy, a woman’s body changes a lot. There is a ton of growth going on, so the mother has to adjust to a lot of changes in a short time. This results in pain because they aren’t used to it all yet.
This is completely fine, but all the pain can limit their movement and their everyday lives, which is not okay.
But once again, sometimes medicine is considered to be impacting your child (negatively of course), so some mothers would instead not take it and live with the pain. Although, some DO turn to CBD as a last resort and learn that it’s not that bad.
Be sure to also check out “Can CBD Cream (Salve) be Used For Pain Relief?” for info on finding CBD cream and learning to apply it correctly.
Postpartum depression
A lot of people avoid this topic, as it’s seen as taboo. It isn’t.
The more mothers there is in our world, the more cases of postpartum depression. It happens more than you would think, but it isn’t talked about, unfortunately.
The reason why people avoid the topic is that they only know about the most extreme cases. Mothers are not loving their children or straight up, wanting to get rid of them. Or worse.
Those cases exist, but they are insanely rare. Although if you happen to be in that category, then please don’t resort to CBD, seek professional help instead so they can help you instead of just giving you a temporary solution.
If you sometimes feel distant from the people around them, then CBD can be an excellent thing to start with. It can help you ease back into everyday life, slowly re-learning the norms. If you are willing to work on it, then you won’t require outside help. Although, if you don’t seem to be managing the situation well, it is completely fine to seek help. You are doing an excellent job as a mother if you admit to these faults.
What Happens to Your Baby If You Use CBD During Pregnancy?
We all know that marijuana and THC would have an awful effect, but CBD is entirely different. It’s a compound that is non-psychoactive and relatively natural, so it shouldn’t be too bad.
Well, there’s not much research behind this, only the experiences of mothers who have used marijuana during their pregnancy. In their cases, the placenta formed differently, changing the characteristics and physiology of the child. It can also change the birth weight of the child, which can mean that they have to go into intensive care immediately.
That’s frightening the least to say.
Thankfully though, in these cases, the mothers were under the influence for prolonged periods, so this is not normal at all. Not many people stay under the influence for 24 hours, much less for 72.
This was in the case of marijuana, though, but we don’t have any research about the effects of CBD during pregnancy. For now, it’s only a mystery, so it’s best to stay away from it and let the scientists do the trials.
Taking CBD oil already? Check out “How Long does CBD Oil Stay in Your System?” to see when to stop taking CBD oil.
Can CBD Get Into Breast Milk?
Unfortunately, there haven’t been many studies done on the matter, which is a shame as many mothers are looking into it. Since CBD has pain-relieving effects, it would be perfect for new mothers who are still struggling with the aftereffects of birth. And CBD oil would be one of the easiest and most natural ways to ease that, mainly because it would help those who got a C-section and who gave birth naturally.
Many mothers are reluctant even to entertain the idea of letting CBD oil get into their baby’s system through breastfeeding. So there are only a small number of studies. But the ones that exist have proven, that yes, CBD can get into breast milk.
Although only in a few cases. We don’t know if it depends on genes, weight, or the baby because there is not enough data to back it all up.
But what you should know is that yes, it can get into the breast milk, thus affecting the child. This is what you should be concerned about, not the chance of it happening.
What Does CBD Do to Infants?
Said: we don’t know yet. Mainly because of the lack of studies.
But once again: only THC and marijuana have been proven to be harmful to babies, not CBD. As we know, at this point, it’s safe to use.
There are probably a couple of adverse effects, or we expect that to be the case at the very least. Anything made from a compound of marijuana will be expected to be harmful, which is why many doctors advise against the use of CBD as long as an extensive amount of research hasn’t been done. But in some cases that can already be too late, as some conditions can do way too much damage until then.
Seizures
But we can always talk about the effects it can have on children with diseases. For example, if you have a baby who has regular seizures, then breastfeeding with milk infiltrated with CBD oil can be a great way to help that. It can calm down the nerves and either make the seizures less harmful or completely stop them.
There’s the case of Charlotte Figi (who you have probably already heard of). She is a young girl who suffers from Dravet syndrome, which was diagnosed at age 2.5. For such a small child that is drastic. She was having seizures regularly, lasting up to four hours which couldn’t be helped. Then the parents started administering CBD oil, and after some time, it started getting better. So much so that now she only has seizures 2-3 times a month. And she is doing better every day.
Autism
No, we aren’t stating that CBD will cure autism. That is most definitely not the case.
But what it can do for autistic children is help them stay calm during stressful social situations. For example, many parents are struggling with their child’s need to set rules. Even ones that are supposed to apply to strangers around them. And what happens when those people don’t follow the rules (either because the kid doesn’t tell them or they can’t be expected to do so)? They have a meltdown — a bad one at that.
This, of course, isn’t the child’s fault, no meltdown is. They need to learn that the world doesn’t bend to their needs, but that should be done without such negative experiences.
That’s where CBD comes in. If you know when your child will be in a stressful situation, you can administer the oil and let it do its’ thing. Your child will learn without trauma.
This also works great with infants. Although it’s hard to diagnose babies with autism, the symptoms are already present after six months, and CBD can make a significant difference for them. Administering the oil through your breast milk is a bit… unique thing to do, but if you want to make the experience more natural then go right ahead.
Make sure you also check out “CBD Oil & Aspergers: Here’s What You Should Know” for more on types of Autism and CBD oil.
At this point, it can be said that breastfeeding while using CBD oil is safe. It can make its way into breast milk, but even then there likely won’t be any damage. Although, if you would rather be safe than sorry, we advise you not to take chances and skip the CBD.
But if you decide to use it, then we fully support you. It will do wonders for you and maybe even for your child. Thank you for reading! Let us know in the comments below if you’re a mother experimenting with CBD.
Be sure to also check out similar articles to spark up your CBD knowledge like “How to Flavor CBD Oil And Make it Tastier” or “Most Recognized CBD Companies in the World” Check it out!
