How much coffee can you drink when pregnant
Caffeine in pregnancy | March of Dimes
We don’t know a lot about the effects of caffeine during pregnancy on you and your baby. So it’s best to limit the amount you get each day.
If you’re pregnant, limit caffeine to 200 milligrams each day. This is about the amount in 1½ 8-ounce cups of coffee or one 12-ounce cup of coffee.
If you’re breastfeeding, limit caffeine to no more than two cups of coffee a day.
Caffeine is a drug found in things like coffee, tea, soda, chocolate and some energy drinks and medicines. It’s a stimulant, which means it can keep you awake.
How does caffeine affect you and your baby during pregnancy?
Caffeine slightly increases your blood pressure and heart rate and the amount of urine your body makes. Caffeine may cause you to feel jittery, have indigestion or have trouble sleeping. During pregnancy, you may be especially sensitive to caffeine because it may take you longer to clear it from your body than if you weren’t pregnant. It may also make you feel nauseous or lightheaded.
When you have caffeine during pregnancy, it passes through the placenta to your baby. The placenta grows in your uterus (womb) and supplies the baby with food and oxygen through the umbilical cord.
You may have heard that too much caffeine can cause miscarriage (when a baby dies in the womb before 20 weeks of pregnancy), preterm birth (birth that happens before 37 weeks of pregnancy is completed) or low birth weight (when your baby is born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces). Some studies say this is true, and others don’t.
Until we know more about how caffeine can affect pregnancy, it’s best to limit the amount you get to 200 milligrams each day. This is about the amount in 1½ 8-ounce cups of coffee or one 12-ounce cup of coffee. Be sure to check the size of your cup to know how much caffeine you’re getting.
What foods and drinks contain caffeine?
Caffeine is found in:
- Coffee and coffee-flavored products, like yogurt and ice cream
- Tea
- Some soft drinks
- Energy drinks
- Chocolate and chocolate products, like chocolate syrup and hot cocoa
- Some medicines
The amount of caffeine in foods and drinks varies a lot.
For coffee and tea, the amount of caffeine depends on:
- The brand
- How it’s prepared
- The type of beans or leaves used
- The way it’s served (for example, as espresso or latte)
- The size of the cup. Not all coffee cups are the same size, even though you think of them as a cup. Check to see how many ounces your cup has, especially if you’re buying a cup of coffee or tea. If you’re making coffee or tea at home, measure to check the size of the cup.
Some energy drinks contain large amounts of caffeine. For example, a 24-ounce energy drink may have up to 500 milligrams of caffeine. Energy drinks may have a lot of sugar, too, and they may contain ingredients that may be harmful to your baby during pregnancy. Because we don’t know a lot about all the ingredients in energy drinks, it’s best not to have them when you’re pregnant.
The amount of caffeine you get from food and drinks throughout the day adds up. So if you have a cup of coffee in the morning, you may want to limit or give up having other food and drinks during the day that have caffeine.
The list below shows the amount of caffeine in common food and drinks. The caffeine amounts are averages, so they may change depending on the brand or how the food or drink is made. Check the package label on food and drinks to know how much caffeine they contain.
What medicines contain caffeine?
Some medicines used for pain relief, migraine headaches, colds and to help keep you awake contain caffeine. The Food and Drug Administration (also called FDA) requires that labels on medicine list the amount of caffeine in the medicine.
If you’re pregnant, talk to your health care provider before taking any medicine that contains caffeine. This includes prescription and over-the-counter medicine. A prescription is an order for medicine given by a health care provider. You can buy over-the-counter medicine, like pain relievers and cold medicine, without a prescription.
Some herbal products contain caffeine. These include guarana, yerba mate, kola nut and green tea extract.
Herbal products are made from herbs, which are plants that are used in cooking and for medicine. The FDA does not require that herbal products have a label saying how much caffeine they contain. If you’re pregnant, don’t use herbal products because we don’t know how much caffeine they contain.
Is caffeine safe during breastfeeding?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says it’s safe for breastfeeding moms to have caffeine. A small amount of caffeine does get into breast milk, so limit caffeine if you’re breastfeeding. Breastfed babies of women who drink more than 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day may become fussy or have trouble sleeping. You may want to drink less caffeine if your baby was born preterm or newborn because she may digest caffeine more slowly.
Last reviewed: April 2020
Limiting your caffeine intake in pregnancy
Tommy's PregnancyHub
It is best to limit your caffeine intake as much as possible during pregnancy, as high levels have been linked to pregnancy complications.
Find out your daily caffeine intake with our caffeine calculator.
Calculate your daily caffeine intake
How much caffeine do you have a day?
Mug of tea (350ml)
Mug of filter coffee (350ml)
Mug of instant coffee (350ml)
Can of cola (330ml)
Energy drink (250ml)
Plain (dark) chocolate bar (50g)
Milk chocolate bar (50g)
Caffeine calculator
- A can of cola has around 40mg of caffeine
- A mug of tea has around 75mg
- A bar of plain chocolate has around 25mg
- A cup of instant coffee has around 100mg
- A mug of filter coffee has around 140mg
- Energy drinks: a 250ml can has around 80mg.
If you drink sports drinks, remember check the amount of caffeine in these too. Some now have caffeine added.
What does 200mg of caffeine look like?
You will be reaching 200mg of caffeine with, for example:
- 2 bars of plain chocolate and one mug of filter coffee
- 2 mugs of tea and one can of cola.
Cutting down on caffeine
Caffeine is found naturally in some foods and drinks, such as tea and coffee. It is also added to some products such as energy drinks.
One study found that energy drinks, instant coffee and cola had the strongest links to pregnancy complications. It is best to try to avoid these during pregnancy and find replacements. Energy drinks and cola also contain lots of sugar, so it is good to limit these as part of a healthy diet.
Decaffeinated tea and coffee, fruit juice or water are all good choices if you are used to drinking a lot of caffeinated drinks.
Be aware that decaffeinated products still contain a very small amount of caffeine.
The amount may vary, but it is still much lower than regular caffeinated products.
Quote marksCreated with Sketch.I found slowly weaning myself off caffeine and onto decaffeinated versions of tea and coffee was a good way to reduce and majorly decrease my intake. Now I don't even really miss the caffeine buzz.
— Kate
Review dates
Reviewed: 05 March 2021
Next review: 05 March 2024
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Doctors told how much coffee pregnant women can drink - Gazeta.Ru
Doctors told how much coffee pregnant women can drink - Gazeta.Ru | News
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Daily coffee consumption, no matter how much, carries no risk for pregnancy, researchers at the University of Queensland have found.
They told about this in an article in the journal International Journal of Epidemiology .
WHO recommends that pregnant women consume less than 300 mg of caffeine per day, or no more than 2-3 cups of coffee. However, these recommendations are based on observational studies where it is difficult to separate coffee consumption from other risk factors.
Researchers analyzed the relationship between coffee consumption, pregnancy outcomes and the genetic makeup of hundreds of thousands of women. It was previously known that certain genetic factors affect whether a person drinks more or less coffee. Since pregnant women cannot be forced to drink a certain amount of coffee throughout pregnancy, and self-reports are not always accurate, conclusions about coffee consumption were made based on a genetic profile.
It turned out that no amount of caffeine consumed during pregnancy, even more than the norm, did not increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and preterm birth.
"When it comes to nutrition during pregnancy, women are often advised to eliminate certain foods from their diet, but this study shows that they can continue to drink coffee without worrying about increased risk," the authors noted.
However, only the most serious complications were considered in the study. It is possible that excess caffeine may affect other aspects of fetal development - this remains to be tested.
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so is it still possible or not?
June 16, 2022 12:23 Olga Muraya
There are a number of strict dietary restrictions during pregnancy, but it is not necessary to completely eliminate coffee from your daily diet.
Photo by Anna Civolani/Unsplash.
Researchers confirm that drinking coffee during pregnancy does not pose serious risks to the mother and her unborn child.
An international team of scientists has determined that daily coffee consumption does not increase the risk of preterm birth, miscarriage or stillbirth.
Researchers say that pregnant women can safely drink coffee at least every day without fear of side effects. But it is still necessary to limit its consumption to the recommended rate.
Recall that WHO recommends that pregnant women consume no more than 300 mg of caffeine per day. In the United States and some European countries, the maximum dose of caffeine is even less - 200 mg per day.
In general, these recommendations are equivalent to 1-3 cups of coffee per day, although the amount of caffeine in different coffee drinks can vary greatly.
Previous recommendations were based on observational studies. They make it difficult to separate coffee consumption from other risk factors such as smoking, alcohol or poor diet.
The authors of the new study wanted to find out whether coffee itself actually increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
They relied on a study that confirmed that a certain set of genetic variants influences how much coffee we drink.
Of course, the researchers couldn't ask women to drink the prescribed amount of coffee during pregnancy to assess health risks. This would be highly unethical.
Instead, they used genetic analysis to mimic a randomized controlled trial. Let us explain that this is the highest quality standard of scientific work in the view of modern scientists.
The researchers used a method called Mendelian randomization. ( It is named after the eminent biologist Gregor Mendel. ) Scientists have studied whether eight genetic variants that predict how much a pregnant woman consumes coffee are also associated with birth outcomes.
