When we see those two lines appearing that confirm we are definitely pregnant, there are many things that women give up immediately. One of the main ones, and sometimes the hardest, is caffeine. Our several cups in the morning are replaced with something like herbal tea.
This is one of the areas where the old definitely disagree with the young. Tell you older female relatives that you have given up caffeine and they will probably laugh. This is the point where you will get the story about how they consumed gallons of the stuff and their children were all fine. A low birth weight and pre term births have been linked to caffeine, so why take the risk?
Consume more that 300 mg a day and your baby could be at risk. Drink over the recommended amount during your first trimester and the risk of miscarriage is slightly raised.
Drink any more than this recommended amount and their can be a slight risk to your child. The chances of having a miscarriage are also slightly raised if more than this is drunk during the first 3 months.
Yet another good reason for giving up caffeine is the fact that it is a stimulant. This means that it increases your heart rate and can also cause headaches and insomnia. Both if these can put unnecessary stress on your unborn child.
All of us have drank coffee at some time or another to keep us awake, as it is a stimulant. The side effects of this, however, are a raised heart rate, headaches and insomnia.
To sum it up, cutting out caffeine altogether is highly recommended, but if you feel that you still need your coffee, keep to guidelines of 300mg per day or less.
Don’t think that you can still drink the same amount as normal if you change to decaffeinated coffee, as this still contains caffeine and you will go over your 300 mg. Play it safe and do without any altogether.
Besides Healthy Practice, this writer additionally regularly writes on Rancilio Silva and commercial coffee machines.