Midwife: "No caffeine at all" er... really? Are you kidding me??

[zerominuszero]

Still early on in my pregnancy, saw mw for the first time. I am going teetotal - my only vice is a single cup of tea in the morning. "Try to cut it down to no cups of tea," mw says.

Er... how is this anything other than total bullshit? I find it hard to believe that there are any studies that demonstrate any problem with ONE cup of tea in pregnancy. So why bother lying to me about it? All it does it cause me to lose respect for her and question whether anything she says is based on actual evidence, rather than voodoo rituals and astrology.

I know it's only a small thing, but... it really annoys me. So there you go.

My take on caffeine was that chocolate has bucket loads of caffeine in it, and no medical body would have the nerve to tell pregnant women to avoid chocolate.

I had my morning two cups of instant throughout my pregnancy. (Don't eat chocolate). But that said, I was fortunate in that my pg was pretty straightforward and my bp and all that was fine.

I wouldn't worry about it. I had a strong flat white (i know you don't have them in the uk - kind of like a strong latte, crazy australians) and a can of diet coke every single day. and then the odd tea as well. My obstetrician didn't have a problem with it at all. She was very laid back about whole caffeine/wine thing. Towards the end she was actively encouraging a glass of wine and a large bowl of pasta. bless her

chateaurouge, I'm not planning on spinning any webs whilst pregnant so does that mean I can carry on with my morning latte?!

chateaurouge - you do realise we are a little different to spiders don't you - and that spiders would have been unlikely to be exposed to caffeine before that experiment? Did they base it on body size / weight?

zerominuszero - everything is a risk. Literally everything. I bet getting out of bed has some degree of risk but staying in bed also will. Crossing the road, getting in the car, bet they all have bigger risks than caffeine.

Personally I think I would be at more risk not having a cup of coffee than the risk of the caffeine!

Fwiw, chocolate should be included when you work out how much caffeine you've had.

A link with typical amounts of caffeine in drinks & chocolate

You'd have to eat 200g of dark chocolate to get 200mg of caffeine!

I think some of the problem these days is that the medical community live in fear of being sued if things dont work out so they err on the side of caution

But no tea, no coffee, no irn bru, no coke, no alcohol?? what is a pregnant woman supposed to drink??

I drank a lot of tea during my pregnancy as I switched my weekend alcohol in take for tea and choc..

I'm pretty sure there is a government website that tells you how much caffeine is recommended, I'm pretty sure it is 200mg a day.

If you wanted though, you can get decaf tea. I'm particularly enjoying decaf earl grey just now (DD is 8 Months old and I'm no longer breastfeeding so no real need for decaf I just prefer it).

Oh it's all such rubbish - to be made to feel guilty over a single cup of tea for heaven's sake. I can truly foresee a world in which Nestle wakes up to the marketing opportunity of creating formula for pg women - drink this and consume nothing else, and your baby will be safe...

You lucky mums! Mostly gone off coffee, coke, tea and alcohol as soon as I got pregnant with DS and this one. (I didn't go off them for the 2 other MCs)

I still have it though when not feeling too sick, though I regret it after. I think if I hadn't gone off them I would've slowly switched to decaff just because I'm the silly careful type.

Just to clarify - When I say 'regret', it's not because I feel bad for taking caffeine, it's because I always feel SO sick after.

im a tea addict - most decaff teas are crap, but I changed to asda decaff (which is quite weak like i like it.) Its great! I cant tell the difference - so much so, my assistant at work made me tea and i drank it, then realised i didnt have any decaff in the office, and she had forgotton! I couldnt tell. That being said, if you want caffiene have it. Its a bugger to withdraw from! I felt mega crap in early pregnancy and most of that I am convinced was caffeine withdrawal (i used to have at least 10 mugs a day).

well I'm buggered then! I've been having at least two cups of tea or coffee a day throughout my pregnancy. Plus diet coke and chocolate.

Honestly, what rubbish advice. She should know better.

The NHS says 200mg, and also states that they don't know the effect of caffeine on pregnancy.

I have one cup of coffee, one cup of tea and some choccy most days, although for the first 14 weeks I was on decaff just in case.

jjkm - don't worry, I didn't even understand the first connotation (had to look it up) as I'm not a Spanish speaker! My name originated from Dora and her squeaky voice infiltrating my brain

balls to not drinking tea, i say.

dp has a major tea habit and it's rubbed off on me... throughout my 3 pregnancies i would have had on average 5/6 cups of tea a day and occasional coffees too. And with ds2 i kept getting cravings for coca cola and buying cans of that too.

The most often stated risks of caffeine intake during pregnancy are miscarriage, premature birth and low birth weight and my three pregnancies were all full term, big, babies. So my case study of 3 pregnancies states it's all nonsense

Interestingly i jjust came across this statement on one site:

"Interestingly, this Danish study found that this considerably greater risk of miscarriage was specific to coffee. Other caffeinated beverages and foods did not present the same significant increase, leading researchers to believe that other chemicals contained in coffee could possibly play a role in causing miscarriage."

Sounds like caffeine might be being unfairly blamed

I'm 31 weeks pregnant and drink absolutely gallons of strong coffee every day, I assumed it was fine unless I actually went off it. Baby seems to be fine - normal size etc. on the scans - and flipping heck, I've given up enough else!!

I should add that coffee has absolutely zero physical effect on me also when not pg, I just like the taste and it's an unshakeable habit. Doesn't perk me up or keep me awake at night. So maybe different people process it differently.

I read somewhere that decaf coffee increased chance of miscarriage too.
And my DS's pack of carrot sticks have a warning for pregnant people on them.

Carrot sticks?! With a warning for pregnant people?! Oh dear god. Is there nothing that us walking wombs are allowed to eat or have the fun police deemed it all out of bounds.

I'd better get back to my hermetically sealed bubble before the fresh air damages my unborn child....

Carrots?
Oh well, at least cake is ok.

I wonder what my Italian colleagues would say to not being allowed any coffee...

I drank tea in my last pregnancy and DD was a healthy 8lb. Tea is the only drink (along with coca cola I've discovered) that helps with MS and makes me feel normal! I have quit coffee but would usually only tolerate one cup of fresh coffee a day before getting jittery. Take my tea away and I may do something I regret. What a load of rubbish!

This would really annoy me. I want my midwife/dr to have a 1) a commitment to evidence-based advice, and 2) a basic understanding of risk and statistics.

In any case, even if there were good evidence that a certain level of caffeine intake significantly raised a substantial risk of miscarriage (which there isn't), then you'd be perfectly entitled to decide to take that risk. Your pregnancy, your choice.