decaf and herbal tea - safe?

[JoEW]

I'm a bit confused about whether it's ok to drink decaf tea and herbal teas when pregnant. I've just found out I am, 4 weeks, and had a miscarriage earlier this year at 9 weeks, so I'm keen to be as careful as possible. I usually knock back about six cups of tea a day, so am wondering if it's safe to replace my avid tea drinking with decaf option.
Any advice would be useful. Also is Ginseng a no no?

The official advice keeps changing. Best to ask your MW what the latest thinking is. I know that raspberry leaf tea is a nono.

I would say decaf is ok but would be careful with herbal teas unless it*s fruit infusions as herbs can be pretty strong stuff,

this is from the food standards agency:

It's important not to have too much caffeine. This is because high levels of caffeine can result in babies having a low birth weight, which can increase the risk of health problems in later life. High levels of caffeine might also cause miscarriage. It's best not to have more than 200mg of caffeine a day when you're pregnant.

The amount of caffeine in food and drink will vary, but as a guide each of these contain roughly 200mg or less of caffeine:

?2 mugs of instant coffee (100mg each)
?1 mug of filter coffee (140mg each)
?2 mugs of tea (75mg each)
?5 cans of cola (up to 40mg each)
?2 cans of 'energy' drink (up to 80mg each)
?4 (50g) bars of plain chocolate (up to 50 mg each). Caffeine in milk chocolate is about half that of plain chocolate
So if you eat a bar of plain chocolate and drink one mug of filter coffee in a day, or if you drink two mugs of tea and a can of cola, you'll have almost reached 200mg. But don?t worry if you occasionally have more than this, because the risks are likely to be very small

I have a book called the fertility diet..

lets just say its somewhat extreme and advises against eating anything (except organic seasonal raw freshly picked fruit and veg and nuts) and goes on and on and on about how bad homogonised milk is (ie pretty much all milk apart from waitrose organic). also suggests moving out of city into the countryside and lots of other extream things no one else in the real worls can feasibly do...

anyway this book makes you terrified to eat or drink almost anything...

BUT it does make a huge point about it being fine to drink naturally caffein free tea, ie redbush, fruit infusions etc, but suggests that it is NOT good to drink chemically decaffinated teas or coffees (ie normal decaf coffee, or decaffe tea bags)... (and like everything else gives a long explanation as to why...

I seem to remember when I was pg reading that green tea interferes with folic acid uptake so is best avoided

Thanks for all the advice guys. Seems as though even decaf (not natural) is not advised. I had better cut down at least. The girls in the office are going to spot something's up pretty darn quickly. I never turn down a cuppa. Rooibos it is then!