Pregnancy: Maybe it’s OK to drink coffee after all

Women have for years been warned off coffee – or any drink containing caffeine – while they are pregnant.  If they do continue to drink it, doctors have warned, they increase the risk of infertility, birth defects, miscarriage, stillbirth, premature death, fetal growth, and cot death.

Even one cup a day was enough to halve their fertility, a landmark study found in 1988, although it has since been refuted by nine other papers, which have gone unnoticed.

Now a new study goes further, and suggests that coffee may not be as bad as we’ve been told.  To be safe, they advise women not to drink coffee, or other caffeinated drinks such as colas, in the first half of pregnancy, but that it’s reasonably safe to drink a modest amount in the second half.

Like most things, nothing is as black and white as coffee.

(Source:  British Medical Journal, 2007; 334: 377).


E-news broadcast 1 March 2007 No.338 [Subscribe]