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ABOUT OUR RESEARCH

Cannabis-Pregnancy study

Our research project aims to better understand how cannabis use in pregnant women in Quebec has evolved with attention to their individual and partners’ behaviors, health system factors and cannabis policies.

Our research

Healthy pregnancies are at the core of Canada’s commitment to promote and protect the health of mothers and newborns. Yet, with the Cannabis Act in 2018, many concerns regarding pregnant women’s well-being have unfolded. While public guidelines have explicitly recommended avoiding cannabis use during pregnancy, especially after the Cannabia Act in 2018, some pregnant women have declared using this drug to tackle medical, psychological, and social problems. Based on the conceptual framework of the social determinants of healthy pregnancies in which structural determinants (such as policies, including health system dynamics, and cultural values) and intermediary determinants (i.e., psychosocial factors and behaviors) jointly unfold, our research project aims to better understand how cannabis use in pregnant women in Quebec has evolved with attention to i) their individual and partners’ behaviors, ii) health system factors and iii) cannabis policies

Objective 1

Systematize how women, and their partners, assess cannabis use during pregnancy.

Objective 2

Systematize how health professionals across different disciplines respond to and/or guide women regarding cannabis use during pregnancy.

Objective 3

Assess the impact of the CA-2018 in the prevalence of diagnosed cannabis use disorder in pregnant women across Quebec regions

Our approach

An interdisciplinary approach to study cannabis use in pregnant women in Quebec

Our approach will consist of a mixed methods research. We apply a parallel design, to study reasons behind cannabis use during pregnancy considering women’s, their partners’ and health professionals’ perspectives, in interaction with the Cannabis Act, will be used for completeness and diversity of (methodological) views.

Understanding how cannabis use in pregnant women in Quebec has evolved with attention to their individual and partners’ behaviors and health system factors is a complex challenge that this interdisciplinary research project can contribute to our understanding. The following components express the interdisciplinary aspect of our project :

Understanding how pregnant women, partners, and health professionals approach and negotiate cannabis use

Regarding completeness, our general inquiry of how cannabis use during pregnancy requires a comprehensive account of the phenomenon since there might be interactions between individuals within the health system and the health system itself. For instance, individual perceptions of pregnant women, their partners, and health professionals may interact with features of the Quebec health system across its regions. We expect potential differences to emerge in association with the different dynamics within Quebec’s health system (i.e., team compositions in terms of health disciplines, team processes, and beliefs and perceptions of health professionals). Applying a qualitative method to understand how individuals (pregnant women, partners, and health professionals) approach and negotiate cannabis use can illustrate the influence of past social trajectories. A qualitative approach may also provide insights to understand why quantitative regional differences across the Quebec health system may have emerged. The diversity of (methodological) views will facilitate the combination and integration of researchers’ methodological perspectives and participants’ experiences. Our team is composed of members with strong qualitative and quantitative backgrounds from various health and social science disciplines, including epidemiology, sociology, and psychology.