Maternal
nutrition is important to a developing embryo and to the health of the child
later in life. Supplementing the diet with recommended specific vitamins is
known to increase health of the fetus for example folic acid (vitamin B9)
reduces the risk of spina-bifida.
However,
not everything an adult might consume is beneficial to a developing baby.
COFFEE
New
research published in BioMed Central's
open access journal BMC Medicine shows
that caffeine is linked to low birth weight babies and that caffeine from
coffee in linked to increasing length of pregnancy
Along
with nutrients and oxygen, caffeine freely passes the placental barrier, but
the developing embryo does not express the enzymes required to inactivate it
efficiently.
The
WHO currently suggests a limit of 300mg per day during pregnancy but some
countries recommend a limit of 200mg, which can be less than a single cup of
coffee from some high street cafes.
RESEARCH
To
investigate the impact of maternal caffeine during pregnancy on babies, a
research team from the Norwegian Institute for Public Health used information
about mother's diet and birth details collected over ten years. After excluding
women with medical and pregnancy-related conditions almost 60,000 pregnancies
were included in the study.
All
sources of caffeine were monitored in the study: coffee, tea, fizzy drinks, as
well as food including cocoa-containing cakes and deserts and chocolate.
RESULTS
Explaining
their results, Dr Verena Sengpiel, from Sahlgrenska University Hospital,
Sweden, who led the project said, "Although caffeine consumption is
strongly correlated with smoking which is known to increase the risk for both
preterm delivery and the baby being small for gestational age at birth (SGA).
In this study we found no association between either total caffeine or coffee
caffeine and preterm delivery but we did find an association between caffeine
and SGA. This association remained even when we looked only at non-smoking
mothers which imply that the caffeine itself is also having an effect on birth
weight."
In
fact they found that caffeine from all sources reduced birth weight.
For a child of expected average weight (3.6kg)
this equates to 21-28g lost per 100mg caffeine per day. But it was not just
caffeine, but the source of caffeine, which affected pregnancy outcomes.
Caffeine from all sources increased the length of the pregnancy by 5hr per
100mg caffeine per day, but caffeine intake from coffee was associated with an
even longer gestational length -- 8hr extra for every 100mg caffeine per day.
CONCLUSION
This
association means that it is not just the caffeine in coffee which increases
gestational length but either there must be a substance in coffee which is
responsible for the extra time or there is a behavior associated with coffee
drinking not present in women who drink only tea (for example). SGA babies are
at higher risk of both short term and lifelong health problems and it seems
from these results that since even 200-300mg caffeine per day can increase the
risk of SGA by almost a third these recommendations need to be re-evaluated.
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