Pregnant Women Should Avoid Caffeine

Recent research has shown that coffee can increase the chances of miscarriage. The researchers suggest that women should consider giving up caffeine during pregnancy, as even moderate consumption in early pregnancy increases risk of miscarriage.

The Food Standards Agency guidelines currently set an upper limit of 300mg during pregnancy, which equals four cups of coffee a day. However, an American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology study found more than 200mg of caffeine a day doubled the risk, compared to abstainers. Experts said they would review the data to see if advice needed changing.

Pat O’Brien, spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, has already started advising women to totally abstain from coffee, tea, coke and other caffeine based drinks during the first three months of pregnancy, when miscarraige is of greatest risk.

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“The first 12 weeks is a very vulnerable time for the baby. It’s when most miscarriages occur,” – Pat O’Brien.

Pat O’Brien also said that a majority of women, in early pregnancy, naturally went off caffeinated drinks, and so should not find abstaining from them too difficult. Research is still unclear whether pregnant women needed to avoid caffeine in later pregnancy.

Miscarriage risk

“20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, which affects approximately 250,000 women in the UK every year. There are a number of well-established risk factors, such as increased maternal age, a previous history of miscarriage, and infertility. But the causes of the majority of miscarriages are not fully understood. Caffeine has been mooted as a risk factor before, but studies have yielded conflicting results. For the latest research, Dr De-Kun Li and colleagues at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, studied 1,063 women who had become pregnant in the last month or two.” – BBC Health.

Abstinence is the Safest Option

The increased risk appeared to be related to the caffeine itself, rather than other coffee ingredients because other caffeinated beverages such as tea and hot chocolate showed a similar trend to coffee. Caffeine is able to cross the placenta to the foetus, but it is not clear what affect this has on the growing baby.

Dr Li said: “The main message for pregnant women from these findings is that they probably should consider stopping caffeine consumption during pregnancy.”

Zoe Wheeldon from the British Coffee Association has pointed out that the latest research did not change the current Food Standards Agency recommendation of a safe upper limit of 300mg of caffeine per day for pregnant women. “This evidence must be reviewed in conjunction with existing research and it is important to review all the available data rather than taking one study in isolation.”

A spokesman from the Food Standards Agency said: “In order to provide a more robust basis for the FSA’s advice to pregnant women on caffeine consumption, an FSA-funded study, involving around 2,500 pregnant women, was commissioned in 2003.

“This is almost complete and the results will be presented to the Committee On Toxicity in closed session for consideration.

“We will ask the committee to also look at this new American study. When the committee has reached conclusions the agency will, if appropriate, revise its advice on caffeine consumption in pregnancy.”

Caffeine Facts

300 mg of caffeine is roughly equivalent to:
Four average cups or three average mugs of instant coffee
Three average cups of brewed coffee
Six average cups of tea
Eight cans of regular cola drinks
Four cans of so-called “energy” drinks
400g (eight standard 50g bars) of normal chocolate
Caffeine content in a cup of tea or coffee varies by different brands and brewing methods

Source: Food Standards Agency

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