For a coffee lover anywhere in the world, there is nothing more invigorating than a hot steaming cup of coffee to kick start one’s day. Hence, for women who are coffee lovers, the question of whether drinking coffee during pregnancy is a wise decision often comes up. Naturally, if you like drinking coffee and you are also pregnant, you would hope that the answer to the question is yes.
Although there is no conclusive proof that coffee drinking during pregnancy is bad, many researches have concluded that caffeine affects may result in a pregnancy miscarriage. In fact, research across the world does look at excess coffee during pregnancy with apprehension as caffeine is believed to affect pregnancy in many different ways. Drinking coffee during early pregnancy is believed to increase the risks of miscarriage because caffeine constricts blood vessels, reducing the flow of oxygen to the placenta. Caffeine also gets across the placenta easily and reaches the fetus and influences the baby’s developing cells. Excess coffee during pregnancy, that is more than eight cups of coffee, is also believed to lead to still birth. Coffee affects the birth weight of the baby, and it was found that there stillbirths doubled in women who drank more than eight cups of coffee.
It has also been found that excess coffee drinking during pregnancy can raise risk of a son being born with un-descended testes. This happens when the testes do not move from the pelvis to the scrotum as they generally do in the later stage of pregnancy. Also, since coffee is a stimulant, it may raise the blood pressure and heart rate, and cause heartburn and acidity in the stomach. In addition, caffeine gets metabolized slowly during the later phase of pregnancy; therefore, coffee during pregnancy can mean more of it in your bloodstream and in the baby’s. Another reason to limit or avoid coffee during pregnancy is that it contains phenols that make iron absorption for the body difficult. Iron as such is very important for women during pregnancy, and iron deficiency anemia can affect both the mother and the baby. Hence, drinking coffee during pregnancy will also take its toll if you are already low on iron.
Irrespective of the inconclusive results of drinking coffee during pregnancy, it has been studied that women who drank eight or more cups of coffee are at 200% more risk of complications in pregnancy than women who did not consume coffee. This, considering the health of both the mother and baby, it is important to be moderate in coffee drinking during pregnancy. The recommended amount of coffee is 200 mg, which means you may have two cups of coffee in a day.
Submitted by N on April 18, 2011 at 06:23
Read more questions in General Questions for Pregnancy and Baby care