Coffee linked to birth of smaller babies
23 February Daily Mail
Mothers-to-be who have a couple of mugs of coffee a day risk having
an underweight baby, research suggests. Coffee may also make pregnancy
last longer but only by a matter of hours. The observations come from
researchers who studied detailed records of almost 60,000 pregnancies
from a ten-year period in Norway. The records included information about
how often the women had foods or drinks containing caffeine, from tea
and coffee to chocolate sandwich spread and bars of chocolate.
Comparing this with details of their baby revealed a clear link with
caffeine and birth weight, with 200 to 300mg a day raising the odds of
the child being classed as small for the length of the pregnancy by up
to 62 per cent.A mug of instant coffee contains around 100mg of
caffeine, and a mug of filter coffee, around 140mg of caffeine.However,
some drinks sold in high street coffee shops contain as much as 300mg
per cup.
In Britain, as in Scandinavia, pregnant women are advised to limit
their caffeine intake to 200mg a day.Coffee, specifically, was found to
be linked with increasing the length of pregnancy, with a daily mug of
instant coffee lengthening the time the baby is in the womb by eight
hours.Unlike some previous studies, the research did not make a link
between caffeine and premature birth.
Researcher Dr Verena Sengpiel, of the Sahlgrenska University Hospital
in Sweden, said that caffeine may hurt the growth of the unborn baby by
slowing the vital passage of nutrients from mother to baby via the
placenta.Writing in the journal BMC Medicine, she added that coffee may
make increase the length of pregnancy by a matter of hours by
interfering with the chemical signals that occur around the onset of
labour.Dr Euan Paul, of the British Coffee Association, said: ‘The UK
Food Standards Agency carefully analysed and thoroughly reviewed the
effects of caffeine during pregnancy and currently recommends that
pregnant women moderate consumption to an upper safe limit of 200mg /
day - two to three cups of coffee.
‘Switching to decaf during pregnancy is also an option for those who
wish to continue drinking coffee.
‘We welcome more research into this important area so that the
associations found in this study can be further explored.’
Annette Briley, consultant midwife for the baby charity Tommy’s,
said: ‘Being born small can lead to catch-up growth and this in turn can
lead to obesity, diabetes and certain cancers in adult life
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