They Say: Drinking Coffee While Pregnant Can Affect Foetus

A new study came out today, making the claim that pregnant women who drink caffeine, even just one cup of java a day,  are at a higher risk to giving birth to a baby who is of a low birth weight. Now, I know every woman is different, but I drank coffee every day while pregnant (with the blessing of my OBGYN, of course) and my daughter was born at 10 ½ pounds. So in my personal study, coffee didn’t do squat in percolating a lighter baby.

This more scientific study than my own anecdotal one was by the British Medical Journal. They found that woman who drank one of two cups of coffee had a 20 per cent risk of having a low birth weight baby and woman who had two or three cups had a 50 per cent risk. But it’s not just java, they stated that “also linked any source of caffeine, including that from tea, cola, chocolate and some prescription drugs, to relatively slower foetal growth.”

This follows a study in the U.S. in January that linked miscarriages to larger doses of caffeine (two or cups of coffee a day).  To read more about this recent study, click here. And if you’re knocked up, put down that latte, mocha or cup of Sumatra, you’ll be drinking plenty of coffee once you are a sleep deprived new parent.