ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Perinatal Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1613324
This article is part of the Research TopicPerinatal Substance Use and Maternal Mental HealthView all 5 articles
Cannabis Use Patterns, Motivations, and Reasons for Abstinence in Pregnancy
Provisionally accepted
Lisa M Blair1*
Meghna Shukla1Julie A. M. J. Kurzer1Marvin Schilt-Solberg2Biyyiah A. Strickland1Salma Akter1Dennette Fend1Kimberly Hamann1
Kristin Ashford3- 1Wayne State University, Detroit, United States
- 2University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
- 3University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
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Prenatal use of cannabis, and co-use of tobacco, has escalated rapidly despite well-documented risks to pregnancies and offspring. The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between prenatal cannabis use, motivations for use, reasons for abstinence, co-use with tobacco and nicotine, and quit attempts among a cohort of persons who used cannabis in their current pregnancy. Persons who used cannabis at least once during their current pregnancy were recruited from prenatal clinics and surveyed. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression (n = 59) were used to determine differences between those who had continued (past 30-day) use of cannabis compared to those who did not. The data reveal that motivations for use and reasons for abstinence of cannabis are complex, with many participants indicating past, unsuccessful attempts to quit. Current cannabis use (past 30 days) was reported by 61% of participants, with 54% of those endorsing daily use and 85% endorsing use at least every other day. Those who endorsed five or more motivations for use were over 10 times as likely to have recent cannabis use. This study highlights major research gaps and discusses clinical and policy implications of the findings and of perinatal cannabis.
Keywords: Pregnancy, prenatal, Cannabis, Tobacco, motivations
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 12 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Blair, Shukla, Kurzer, Schilt-Solberg, Strickland, Akter, Fend, Hamann and Ashford. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lisa M Blair, Wayne State University, Detroit, United States
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