Little or Less, Coffee is Harmful during Pregnancy

A cuppa a day is not a good idea if your baby is on the way.

To have a smooth and trouble-free pregnancy, pregnant women are always advised to keep coffee or caffeine consumption to moderate levels. Experts recommend pregnant women to restrict caffeine intake to 200 mg a day.

However, according to a team of Swedish researchers, irrespective of the amount of consumption, any kind of exposure to caffeine in the uterus can have a negative impact on the baby's healthy growth.

Verena Sengpiel and colleagues from University of Gothenburg in Sweden looked at the hidden risks associated with drinking coffee while pregnant. They looked at 59,000 Norwegian women and found that even drinking two cups of coffee per day after conceiving increased the risk of giving birth to babies with low birth weight, compared to their gestational age.

"The correlation between intake of caffeine and fetal growth was established even among women who followed the official recommendation that they limit caffeine consumption to 200 milligrams a day (two cups of coffee)," Sengpiel said in a news release.

The findings come at a time when one in every 12 babies in the U.S. is born with a low birth weight, and it is one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality before 28 days of age in the country. A birth weight less than 2,500 grams (five pounds and eight ounces) is considered to be low. However, the study couldn't find any link between coffee consumption in pregnancy and premature birth.

The study has been published in BMC Medicine.

Previous studies have shown many hidden risks associated with coffee consumption during pregnancy.  A study published in the British Medical Journal found caffeine consumption during pregnancy increasing the risk of fetal growth restriction and recommends reducing caffeine intake before conception and throughout pregnancy.

Apart from that, a study published in the American Journal of Hypertension has shown higher caffeine intake during pregnancy elevating systolic blood pressure levels in the first and third trimester.