No caffeine for pregnant women?!

[gg321]

So news today says new study finds that it’s better to have NO caffeine at all during pregnancy. Not much help when you’re nearly full term and been consuming it everyday, only one cup of tea a day but still feeling guilty now at the thought of putting my baby at risk, after reading about the new study

@gg321
I really wouldn’t worry.
My mum turned out just fine and she smoked all the way through even during labour and delivery. My mum ate probably everything they say you should “avoid” now, whilst pregnant with me and my brother and we were both born super healthy and very big (9lbs & 10lbs)
These studies change all the time. If they thought it shouldn’t be consumed at all, they would’ve said it years and years and years ago x

I had 1 espresso per day and 1 tea per day whilst pregnant.

He was 7lb 6oz so average weight.

There's a study saying no caffeine now?! Pardon my language but fuck that! Take my wine, take my rare steak, take my soft cheese but do not take my bloody coffee! I've drank over the recommended amount most of this pregnancy (32 weeks now) and my midwife never said anything about it being a risk. There's always going to be something that says it's not safe no matter what "it" is.

The NHS advice isn't changing and the study has been criticised by lots of other scientists - I wouldn't be cutting out tea if I was pregnant now. This is useful

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-53887440

As above. If the study was robust, the NHS would very quickly change their guidelines.

Some days I have no caffeine, some days I have three or four caffeinated drinks 🤷‍♀️

The daily mail completely took it out of context, in this case the study was an observational study, so it would be they looked at how much caffeine women said they had in their pregnancies and then asked what the outcome was.

As it's unethical to do any other types of studies on pregnant ladies they wouldn't have controlled the amount of caffeine or been certain that they had any other underlying conditions that caused bad outcomes, therefore there is no proven causation at all.

After dd1 was born it was in the news that you shouldn't lie on your back when pregnant.

All we can do is make an informed judgement with the information we have available to us at the time.

P. S. And we will always get older relatives and friends scoffing at us following the newer advice that is different from the advice they followed, even though all we are doing is just what they did when pregnant... Following the advice available at the time! 😅

I've not had a drop of caffeine this pregnancy but then I've lost 4 babies (unrelated!) so I'm super paranoid about literally everything. I've not missed it tbh and I'm normally a devout coffee drinker (proper stuff too)

Whether or not its remotely dangerous, I think its worth it.

[quote Chicken123]@gg321
I really wouldn’t worry.
My mum turned out just fine and she smoked all the way through even during labour and delivery. My mum ate probably everything they say you should “avoid” now, whilst pregnant with me and my brother and we were both born super healthy and very big (9lbs & 10lbs)
These studies change all the time. If they thought it shouldn’t be consumed at all, they would’ve said it years and years and years ago x[/quote]
Few cos of tea and the odd gulp of Pepsi. Twins born planned c sec at nearly 7lbs each.

I know it's hard when rules change bit you followed the rules and it's likely they find some people who can have a little of something have too much occasionally whereas a blanket ban most people just have none. So not suddenly now dangerous than last week but easier to follow

Also twin pregnancy, two cups of tea a day / bottle of Pepsi Max. 36 weeks, planned c sec, 6lb 13 and 6lb 15oz. Totally perfect.

Severe hyperemesis and could only tolerate black full strength coffee, Brie cheese and was on morphine for another medical condition.
Baby was born full term absolutely perfect and 7lb 8oz.

I can't make any promises to anyone but stop torturing yourself and be confident in your own pregnancy.

PS obstetrician was happy for me to eat and drink anything as long as it stayed down. Was overweight before pregnancy but lost 7 stone during it.

Also, have suffered 15 miscarriages over the years, so became very resigned to the idea of fate and that there was very little about the whole process I could control anyway.

I drank no caffeine at all from 1 month (finding out) till 16 weeks then after that I had coke the rest of the way through, not in excess but probably more than the recommendation

@balloonsintrees I’m almost 10 weeks but have had severe sickness since 5weeks and ended up in hospital for a few nights. The only thing I can stomach is full fat coke, I’m trying not to drink it but it’s the only thing that helps and at least I’m drinking something!

Everyone should read the book - "Expecting Better" - the author is an Economist who used her statistical and research skills to look at actual scientific papers to answer questions she had about pregnancy because a lot of guidance for pregnant women tends to be "do this... just because" or might even vary between different doctors/GPs.

It's an interesting read - one of the sections is on caffeine and alcohol consumption during pregnancy and what research shows.

I’m 33 weeks and been having one cup of tea daily. I read that today too and was like ugh really? But RCOG said they aren’t changing their guidance so I’ll stick with what they say. Next year it’ll change to, “caffeine is fantastic for pregnancy”.

I lived on pepsi max when pregnant - baby is fine

I tried to find this study but it looks like it hasn't been published yet. So we don't know what's in this review, what increased risk and what were the caffeine doses in analyzed studies. It seems that possibly the review from this Prof of psychology is still under review and press releases are out for the buzz.

Oh this is ridiculous, I'll give up anything but not a cup of tea. I drank what I was allowed to drink for caffeine, is it 200mg it sone Th big in my first pregnancy and she was fine, 7 pound 10 and I'm doing the same this time round. I'm 28 weeks running after a 3 year old, I need caffeine

sorry op I don't mean your ridiculous for posting the post, I mean the research stating another thing that pregnant women should or shouldn't be doing when in reality 20 years ago women simply kept smoking and drinking all through pregnancy and the population continued just fine xx

The results of the study have been taken out of context. The study's authors concluded something along the lines that their study did not show what a safe level of caffeine, so they can't recommend a safe level. They did NOT conclude that any amount of caffeine is not safe.

I'll stick to my two cups of tea day ta!

@JellyBellySmith I've got it and it has been eye opening and very interesting reading. Also very reassuring.

I had decaf tea, doesn't everyone switch for pregnancy ?

@togetsomeperspective

I had decaf tea, doesn't everyone switch for pregnancy ?

Given your allowed x amount a day, no not everyone does. If you only have two cups of tea anyway Vs 12 is fine

Second the recommendation to read "Expecting Better" it's such a great book for understanding the reasons behind advice and the actual studies involved.

I wouldn't worry too much about the caffeine headlines. I am still drinking tea. I did look it up to check and if I recall correctly it's just a meta study of existing data on what women remembered eating and drinking during pregnancy. So it suffers from not being recorded at the time they ate it (who remembers how many cups of tea they drank in a particular day months later, unless it was none?).

I remember from the caffeine chapter in Expecting Better she explains that worse morning sickness known to be a good sign of a healthy pregnancy, and that might mean that women who are somewhat more likely to miscarry are not as nauseated by the taste/smell of coffee, so they drink more of it. But that doesn't mean the coffee caused problems with the pregnancy.