Herbal teas?

[CityDweller]

I don't drink caffeine anyway (haven't for years) and have continued drinking my regular herbal teas during pregnancy (a cup of camomile every evening and also a cup of something else, e.g. peppermint, roibos, liquorice in the afternoon). I haven't thought much about it until today when I noticed baby going a bit mental an hour or so after I had a cup of liquorice tea. I remember noticing this a few weeks ago, also after drinking liquorice tea. So I looked it up on Google and it turns out camomile and liquorice are potentially bad to drink during pregnancy. Although, it seems the advice to not drink it is far stronger in the US and I can't find much about it on UK websites.

Generally, I've been taking a commonsense approach to the 'banned foods' list and doing my own research. So, for eg I've eaten sushi on occasion, have the odd glass of wine, etc. But for some reason I've recently become more cautious about things (I'm 28 weeks, so perhaps I started clearly feeling movements and the baby began to feel more real to me) and now I'm wondering if I should moderate my herbal tea habits or switch to something else.

Any thoughts? Anyone asked a midwife or Dr about this? I just had a midwife apt and won't have another one for a while, so can't check with her any time soon...

Watching this thread with interest as I didn't realise that herbal teas shouldn't be drunk in huge quantities in pregnancy. Went out for afternoon tea last week (birthday treat) and drank about 6 cups of it!

The only herbal I was told not to drink was raspberry leaf tea - until
36 weeks I think - that was when pg with DD1 - 4 years ago. Now 23 weeks pg with DC2 and will be interested to see what others say

I'd heard herbal teas should be avoided too, but not paid much attention as I have yet to find one I actually like.

My midwife has told me mint, nettle, fennel and chamomile tea are all fine to drink. I also read that liquorice should be avoided, although it's not on the NHS banned substances list. The amount in most herbal tea blends is undoubtedly tiny but I have decided to give it a miss until my baby's born. You could try lemon juice and hot water or hot elderflower cordial if you don't fancy tea?

I drink about 2 big mugs of roiboos tea a day. I've read conflicting reports on it, a few South African websites saying its good for pregnant women & a few others that state that, as there's been no research done on it- it should be avoided.

This is why you should Never Google.

CareerGirl is right. If you look at the FSA / DOH guidelines for pregnancy you won't go far wrong. And IIRC they say nothing about herbal tea. It's mostly hot water anyway!

The evidence for Raspberry Leaf toning uterine muscles is pretty thin anyway

It's not just random googling though Tondelay - the US and UK advice clearly differs greatly on this as indicated by the respective Babycentre/er websites -
UK
US