It is a long established fact that drinking alcohol during pregnancy carries the risk of damaging your unborn child. However, new research seems to show that the other drink habit many of us are dependent on ? caffeinated coffee, tea and cola ? are also potentially dangerous. Samantha Cracknell investigates.
Last month, results were published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology showing that pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have twice the risk of miscarriage as those who avoid it completely. The study was led by expert Dr De-Kun Li who advocates pregnant women giving up caffeine for the first three to four months of pregnancy. Dr Li also believes the only true safe dose of caffeine in pregnancy is zero.
So what exactly does caffeine do?
Caffeine is a stimulant and so raises the metabolism and heart rate. As caffeine enters the bloodstream, it crosses the placenta and has the same effect on the unborn baby as the mother. Some studies found that more than 300mg a day had higher risk of miscarriage. High daily levels of caffeine were also found to increase the risk of premature birth and low birth weight. Babies who got more than 500mg per day had faster heart rates and breathing rates, and spent more time awake the first few days after birth.
A contentious issue
However, it is important to note that the issue of caffeine and pregnancy is extremely contentious. For every study that proves caffeine is dangerous, others prove no ill effects.
Miscarriage is difficult to study and explain, as most are due to chromosomal abnormalities, which occur completely by chance, have nothing to do with the parents and are definitely not affected by caffeine. Although no-one can conclusively state the exact ?safe? level of caffeine, most researchers believe moderate amounts won?t harm your baby.
Diane Benford, head of toxicology at the Food Standards Agency (FSA), said: ?You should limit the amount of caffeine you have each day, but you don?t need to cut it out completely.? The FSA advises 300mg daily is a safe dosage.
Each of these contains roughly 300mg of caffeine:
3 mugs of instant coffee (100mg each)
4 cups of instant coffee (75mg each)
3 cups of brewed coffee (100mg each)
6 cups of tea (50mg each)
8 cans of cola (up to 40mg each)
4 cans of ?energy? drink (up to 80mg each)
8 (50g) bars of plain chocolate (up to 50g each). Caffeine in milk chocolate is about half
Healthy alternatives
Morna Murphy, nutritional therapist for Harrogate Nutrition, advises replacing ?(caffeinated) drinks with herbal and fruit teas, water and redbush tea?. Redbush, or Roibosch, is a South African tea, which has additional palatable qualities for those who prefer traditional tea and coffee, says Murphy. ?You can still add milk as some people just like that idea. It does taste different to ?normal? tea but is very pleasant and you can make it as strong as you like, something else which appeals to some who don?t like herbals as they [find them] too ?weak?.?
Murphy also reminds us that going ?cold turkey? is not the best plan for regular caffeine drinkers, as it can bring on headaches and other withdrawal symptoms ? it?s important to decrease slowly.
So most experts agree that you don?t need to cut your caffeine fix completely, though a final tip from Murphy is to avoid Starbucks (Grande) ? it contains 500mg!
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