Did you stop drinking coffee as soon as you found out you were pregnant?

[Dontknowwhattodo123456]

Found out a couple day ago after my period not arriving so very early days - do I need to stop drinking coffee immediately? I’ve had a coffee every morning since finding out because i completely forgot that caffeine is a thing to be mindful of in pregnancy.

thanks in advance! x

I just reduced down to the recommended caffeine amount although have to admit I didn’t count chocolate into it as I didn’t think of it

I still drink caffeine within the recommended limit. I have two cups of tea a day. I choose tea because I miss tea more than coffee and because decaf coffee is fine whereas decaf tea is 🤮.

You can have a coffee each day - up to 200mg is deemed fine by the NHS.
I have one cup of coffee and one of tea, usually.
Then decaf tea after that.

Nope, not at all. I think I actually went and sat in Costa for an hour to get my head around it before going home (was at work when I took a test).

I cut down a lot but still had a couple of filter coffees per week (down from 3 a day!). Helped to cope with the tiredness.

This is a good point!! I never count chocolate 😂

No, I tried to stay within the recommended limit though. Had a coffee in the morning then mostly had de-caff tea during the day. I know I went over some days but not by a lot. Read the guidelines and have a coffee if you like!

You can have a coffee day, and I’d enjoy it because soon enough you may hate the taste of it for a while anyway! Congrats OP

Yes, I stopped caffeine, booze and unpasteurised cheeses etc as soon as I tested positive. Wasn’t hard as I was nauseated pretty much until DS was born, and lived on barbecue-flavoured hula hoops for nine months.

I reduced to one cup a day (from my coffee machine so stronger than instant).

Although when the nausea started I went off coffee for a few weeks.

I couldnt stomach it in the first trimester, but went back to having one or two coffees a day after that. I'd have had them in the first 12 weeks too if I hadnt felt so ill.

You can have a coffee. I used to have a cup in the morning, then decaf Yorkshire tea. I would also treat myself to a couple of coke zeros during the week.

I have decaf coffee now.

If I do have a cup of tea I stay within the recommended limit but I keep a close eye on my drinks.

I don't count the chocolate on my daily magnum though!

Try decaf Barry's, I drink litres of tea a day and barely noticed a difference!

I had 1 coffee a day

Didn't change a thing eating or drinking apart from no alcohol which I rarely did anyhow and 4 healthy kids last one twins lol

No, I just cut back.

I did but I felt really ill not having it so had a cup a day as a compromise

Yes but that was because, despite loving coffee, I got a sudden aversion to it. It smelled like poison.

hahahahaha no.

I kept my cappuccino every morning. Sometimes in the throws of my HG pregnancy, it was the only thing that stayed down all day :(

I massively reduced it until the nausea passed as it made me feel so poorly, but otherwise no I pretty much had as much caffeine as normal which was probably above the NHS recommendations - Emily Oster's book has an interesting chapter on caffeine in pregnancy which I found useful

Yeah Oster says you'd need like seven coffees a day to have an impact on the baby! A lot more than one anyway.

So many of the rules placed on pregnant women are based on scant evidence and the precautionary principle.

Funnily enough, when I became pregnant I went right off coffee, chocolate and cheese, three things I had always enjoyed. I stayed off them for quite a while after my baby was born. I don't eat chocolate now (went off it again after menopause), but like and eat cheese a lot and often enjoy a cup of good coffee in the morning.

There were things I had never liked to eat which I started to enjoy during pregnancy.

There were less 'do's and don'ts' for pregnant women when I was young but sometimes your body tells you what to eat or drink.

I don't think a little chocolate occasionally and one cup of coffee a day is going to hurt a pregnant woman but I am not a healthcare professional.

No, I had either a coffee or tea every day, once nausea was at its lowest, usually around lunchtime.

I recommend reading Emily Oster's book Expecting Better, which runs through the evidence on various topics (coffee, smoking*, drinking, exercise etc) and summarises the research in a way that makes it easy to take informed decisions.

I liked reading the book and it led to me feeling fine about eating fried eggs and smoked salmon, and also feeling comfortable drinking coffee and enjoying the odd glass of wine. You may read it and decide against doing those things: her approach is to give the info and then people can apply it to their own risk appetite and lifestyle etc.

And congratulations!

*obviously the data all goes one way on smoking!