Caffeine and codeine in early pregnancy... worried I've harmed baby

[CobaltRose]

Hi everyone.

I'm only 4w 3d pregnant with (hopefully) my first baby. This is my second pregnancy. My last pregnancy unfortunately ended in a missed miscarriage. I thought I was 12 weeks but a scan revealed an empty sac, so they suspected a blighted ovum. I had to have an ERPC and it was a horrific experience, both mentally and physically.

I was delighted last week to discover I was pregnant again, but have some major worries, mainly about an over the counter painkiller I take.

I unfortunately suffer from chronic migraines/severe headaches. My doctor reckons it's genetic as my dad gets them too. Normal paracetamol does not touch them. There is one particular painkiller that does help, and it contains caffeine and codeine as well as paracetamol.

I try not to take too many in a day as I know they can become addictive, and I normally take 1 or 2 tablets a day. I also try not to take them until the pain is unbearable. However, before I knew I was pregnant I had a few bad days where I had a horrific headache that would not budge and took 6/7 tablets in a 24 hour period.

I am terrified that the codeine and especially the caffeine have harmed my little bean I am especially anxious anyway due to my previous loss, and a terrible part of me suspects it was the codeine or caffeine that caused my previous loss There is no evidence of this, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about it. I don't drink tea or coffee, and I don't like cola or chocolate, so I don't get a lot of caffeine from other things, but each tablet contains 30mg of caffeine, so on the days I took 6/7 tablets I went over the caffeine limit I am cutting down on the painkillers and hoping to stop taking them completely.

I am so so scared. Everything seems to be fine with bean so far but I am utterly terrified I've harmed them already....

Bump

You will be fine, my doctors prescribed codine for me when I was pregnant so it can’t be that harmful taking codine once at a high dose. The caffeine also I think will be ok as most people don’t know they are even pregnant at 4weeks so are eating and drinking high caffeine foods/drink. Lots of prescription medications that are not suitable for pregnant woman are only not suitable because they have not been tested, please try not to worry I know it’s hard but worrying won’t help and stress isn’t good for the baby.

Thank you. I'm likely worrying over nothing but it's hard to relax when you've had a previous loss

Try not to worry OP. I think because of what happened last time you will have heightened concerns this time but all you can do is be mindful now you know you are pregnant.

I didn't know I was pregnant till I was 9 weeks and drank alcohol, took painkillers and had a daily allergy tablet all of which is not recommended. Anyway my point is please don't beat yourself up about it, maybe go to see your dr to ask there advice on how you manage your pain while
Pregnant. Good luck!

I don't think the egg will have implanted at that stage and so it's almost "self-sustained" rather than benefitting from your blood supply. As I'm sure will be the same for many, I drank a ridiculous amount of alcohol (on a holiday!) before finding out I was pregnant - there's nothing you can do to change what you did before you knew you were pregnant. What is important now is that you take these things into consideration.

Caffeine (unless it's in ridiculous amounts) is not going to affect your baby. Unfortunately, miscarriages happen - the vast majority of times because pregnancy is not genetically viable, not because something the mother has had or done. Even the NHS website, which is understandably quite conservative about advice to pregnant women, says you can have 200ml of caffeine per day without damaging your baby. So much guilt for mums out there!

Congrats on your pregnancy xx

So sorry you’re worrying, it’s so natural. I worried the day I accidentally went way over on caffeine caused my MC but all I can say to you is probably not. As PP say, it’s not sharing your blood supply yet. Your previous mc was likely due to chromosomal issues. Fingers crossed for you x

Don’t worry! I suffer pretty badly with migraines and throughout all 4 of my pregnancies I’ve taken 30:500 strength cocodamol (6 to 8 tablets) plus caffeine at least once or twice a week. It’s not advised to take cocodamol in later stages of pregnancy because it affects the breathing but there’s no evidence of harm to a developing foetus early on. My babies were all born healthy and are very well developed 10, 8, 4 and 1 year later
With the caffeine -if you need to take your painkillers just remember it’s not very likely you’ll take 6/7 tablets every day. The extra risk of miscarriage because of it is very small.
I totally understand why you’re anxious though, I had 2 miscarriages .
Hopefully it helps ease your mind a wee bit, wishing you a happy healthy 9 months