Coffee lover and pregnant? Here’s the truth about caffeine intake in pregnancy…
There’s a lot of mixed information about how much caffeine a pregnant women can have and being a coffee lover myself, this was something I needed to know! So to save you the hassle of googling and reading through (potentially) false information, I’ll sum it up for you.
The main reason why caffeine isn’t recommended during pregnancy is because it can increase the risk of growth restriction, placenta issues, cord prolapse, infections or a knot in the cord. All of these can of course put your baby at risk especially a placenta issue or cord prolapse which means an increased risk of a still birth.
However, and this is the important part. Sara Wickham (author, former midwife and researcher) says “that Mothers who consumed more caffeine did have a higher risk of stillbirth. But, it’s likely that the reason for consuming lots of caffeine in pregnancy is going to have an impact on her pregnancy rather than just the caffeine. Like stress. Working night shifts. Or two jobs. Let’s change the system so pregnant women aren’t stressed rather than blaming them for decisions that they don’t have a lot of choice over.” (June 2022)
She continue to say.. “The biggest increase in risk was seen when mothers consumed more than 300mg of caffeine per day. For context that’s more than four instant coffees. Or eight glasses of cola. Or 11 green teas. Given the average woman’s pregnancy bladder maybe it’s simply impossible to drink that many green teas. This is above what guidelines currently recommend and indicates that these mothers may need additional support. However even when mothers regularly drank 300mg a day, the increase in risk was only 2.3 times, raising that stillbirth risk from 0.3 versus 0.7% chance of stillbirth (or again, a 99.3% chance of not having a stillbirth). This is an important issue to talk to women about but not an immediate definitive outcome for all women.”
So to sum up, you DON’T need to ditch the coffee when you’re pregnant, you might just want to be mindful of the amount you’re drinking. If you do have a lot of caffeine throughout the day and want to limit this, have you thought about decaf coffee instead? On average, a regular coffee contains around 95mg of caffeine in it whereas a decaf coffee contains around 2mg. Quite a difference isn’t it? I know you might be thinking that decaf tastes shit but you might be surprised, with the huge increase in coffee and coffee shops in the UK over the past decade, I’m sure you could find a decaf that you love.
I hope this clears up caffeine in pregnancy for you!
Love Sophie x