Sheffield mum on how smoking cannabis during pregnancy helped with extreme morning sickness

Stephanie Todd, aged 31, of Beighton, suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum - HG - during her second pregnancy, a condition which can cause severe nausea, vomiting, weight loss and dehydration.

Last week, Sheffield Council issued a warning to expectant mothers after a report revealed dozens of women give birth in Sheffield every year after smoking cannabis during their pregnancy.

But Stephanie says that without it, she may have not been able to carry her baby to full term, adding that at one point her illness was so bad doctors even suggested she have an abortion.

She said: “I would have a little sip of water and just be sick. They tried to give me tablets and I would just throw them back up and then they gave me something to rub on my gums but because I was so dehydrated it wouldn’t work. I thought my baby would not survive.”

However, after trying cannabis around two months into her pregnancy, Stephanie says her condition massively improved, and she was able to eat and sleep relatively normally.

She said: “After I’d had a smoke I immediately wanted something to eat and I wasn’t sick. I would have a spliff in the morning and one at night to help me sleep through the night.

“When I told them at the hospital I thought I was going to get into trouble but the tablets they were giving me carried a risk for the baby as well.”

The Sheffield Council report said significant numbers of expectant mothers in Sheffield were using cannabis but not accessing drug services.

But Stephanie said that her experience shows that cannabis’s effects on sickness and nausea should not be written off when it comes to treating pregnant women.

“You hear about all the medical things cannabis supposedly does and it certainly seemed to work for me,” she added.

HG symptoms often get better after the 20th week of pregnancy but can last the entire pregnancy duration.

It affects less than one per cent of women but has received greater recognition in recent years after celebrities including the Duchess of Cambridge suffered from it.