to think I won't survive the next 9 months on one cuppa a day!!! :O

[Archemedes]

I've found out that apparently now during pregancy you arent supposed to have any caffiene but if you do one cup a day! :O

I mean I overcame smoking in my first pregnancy and havent smoked since but tea?? its a lifeline I have a v. hyperactive toddler who wakes up at 7 doesnt nap and goes to bed at 7.30/8pm.

I can't survive on one cuppa a day ....just had one and i'm eyeing up the kettle again blindfold me chop hands of

AIBU to think most people will struggle with this.

Why are 99s bad? I must have missed that one and am currently 30 weeks and had one last week

I think most of these guidelines are stuff and nonsense. What do women in Asia and China do when they're pregnant, stop drinking tea? Do Japanese women stop eating sushi? Do French women stop eating brie? Pah - utter rubbish.

Everything in moderation I say. No need to go OTT on any front, whether it's caffeine, raw fish or fruits and vegetables. A balanced diet at all times, and if you can and want to modify your diet to completely eliminate the risks of specific eventualities, go ahead. But there's no need to get carried away, on any front.

Having said that, I cut out caffeine entirely in my first trimester, just to stop DH nagging me. Second trimester, I 'gilded the lily' about my tea intake, and third trimester I was totally brazen :)

agenda - DS was fairly colicky early on and the MW / HV (can't remember whivh bit must have been MW as very early) asked about caffine intake and decided that was cause of the problem.

I cut out all caffine (I miss it so much!) and tbh it made no difference. His colic went away at about 12 weeks but I cut the caffine in week 1 so it wasn't a factor- it just went on its own. I suppose now I am scared if I dirnk caffine it will come back or he wont sleep (not that he does much of that any way :) )

I went completely off tea and coffee when pregnant. Having said that 4 cups of tea a day sounds fine to me. I'm not a big coffee drinker anyway so wouldn't mind missing that.

Jenfraggle - I think it's if you get one of those mr whippy ones - bacteria in the machine I think?

not read whole thread but go for waitrose's own brand decaff tea, it's really good and tastes like normal tea have tried it out on unsuspecting visitors and they haven't noticed the difference

Its funny I had no such caffeine guidlines when I had my son, I drank 3 -4 coffees every day = a big bouncing 10lb baby very healthy - fast forward 5 years to DD 1 cup per day as suggested for a day or two then stopped completely as it made me cross not being able to have a second cup! = one small sickly baby in and out of hospital.

Never quite sure how much to believe these things, I mean I followed them having lost at various stages of pregnancy but still... when ever they are reported the evidence seems very thin to me.

This is the trial I took part in. Apologies, it was late still birth that it was found to be associated with. Got confused - I've been in a lot of trials

repository.peerproject.eu:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/12949/1/PEER_stage2_10.1007%252Fs10654-010-9443-7.pdf

We ask for evidence based practice and evidence takes time to perform really doesn't it. This seemed a pretty robust trial and I did cut down in the pregnancies I had after it.

It's all risk management at the end of the day - I'd rather have the information adn advice adn make a choice though, than 'they' decide the evidence for me and tell me nothing. I like choice - just a shame when it says give up my tea.

Ino tea is a lifeline especially if its your 2nd,3rd etc

yabu - I had to go cold turkey on caffeine a couple of months ago. For a day or two I had a monster headache and generally felt very poorly, but I was poorly anyway so its hard to tell what caused what. That was it withdrawal wise. I really dont need it. Yorkshire tea do really good decaf tea bags and carte noire do reasonablish coffee. It can be a bit tricky going out for drinks - have ended up more at the chain type places where I can really stress no caffeine. Biggest issue is I cant find decaf tea leaves.

Ooh its tough isnt it, i cut it out while ttc.
Ive moved to 2 cups of decaf per day, but actually im right off it. luckily.
decaf can of diet coke too for a treat occasionally.

ANd watch out for Iron Bru as that has caffeine in too. Remember to factor in chocolate, hot choc and choc spreads as well.

It creeps up on you!!

don'task - looking at the study it seems that the risk of miscarriage actually falls when you drink more caffeine - 100?199mg caffeine risk is 2.2
200-299mg caffeine, risk is 1.7. How is this squaring with risk increasing with consumption levels?

It won't be long before the list of what you can do is shorter than the list of what you shouldn't do. Pretty much everything except
Sleeping carries a risk for the baby. Despite This the human race is still thriving.
I cut out pâté and fags both times, everything else in moderation.

I don't know about the miscarriage stuff - I honed in on the stillbirth risk reduction stuff as I have been exposed to that and although it's rare, I really wanted to do every last thing I could do learn all we could about it. So I took part and subsequently reduced caffeine intake.

Am also entirely shite with stats

I couldn't stomach tea or coffee while pregnant. My cousin on the other hand drank many cups a day. Her children are all healthy and intelligent, it doesn't seem to have affected them. She also smoked the entire time, and her diet was terrible. I am not at all suggesting you do that, but I do not think 3-4 cups of tea will cause any harm.

When I was first diagnosed with high blood pressure, I totally quit caffeine. Went to decaf, but then when my bp was good on a regular basis, switched to half de caf and half regular coffee. (has not affected my bp and it has been years now)
If you make your tea in a pot, maybe you can try that, and use decaf tea and regular tea half and half?

A part of me feels like going Ill just get on with like my mother/grandmother had to

all this you cant eat this, that causes alot of hysteria imo sometimes which is definately not good.

Well no, obviously hysteria is never good. But surely that is individuals being hysterical which is something that needs addressing on an individual basis?

I mean, take the stillbirth issue. The reality is that we loose baboes to stillbirth in the UK. Not many, but 1 is more than enough for those that go through it, and therefore if people know how they can reduce their personal risk then they can personally decide to to do that.

I mean, I didn't smoke, cut out caffeine but I did enter some pregnancies overweight. That was my risk and I ran it. I knew the advice, took some of it and didn't loose weight take other aspects of it.

We, as users of the service, ask for information, informed choice and to be equal parthers in care. So when it comes to something like diet choices, that is what we are. Liek I said eariler, I may not like what the recommendation is but that doesn't take away the truth of the recommendation.

Here is the link for the summary of studies on caffeine and miscarriage on wikipedia. Seems that the latest study (2009) showed no link, but others have found that anything over 200mg carries increased risk. I am still having caffeine, but trying to keep within these limits. With occasional lapses when especially knackered.

I like its a crock of shit as long as you drink it moderately

I lived on cola and lucozade when pregnant

And cake mix. Raw egg ftw

I think the stillbirth data is missing from that Wiki summary? I haven't really pondered the miscarriage issue. One day I'll try and work out for myself what the overall data on miscarriage and stillbirth finds. In reality there probably isn't much data. In reality I probably never will do this, as I am probably not going to have a nother baby.