Saturday, October 3, 2009

Decaffeinated Coffee is No Safer than Caffeinated Coffee for Pregnant Women

Just drank my cup of coffee for today. Loves the smell of strong black coffee. It has been way too long I've stopped drinking coffee, all were due to being pregnant and breastfeeding back then. My gynae told me though, that I could still take 1 cup of coffee, tea, or chocolate each day. But I didn't want to take any risks by drinking these beverages. It was very hard to part from coffee as I used to drink at least 5 cups of coffee every day. I was really addicted to coffee. But again, since coffee is not that good for pregnant woman, I really didn't drink coffee for full 16 months.

My friends though, they kept on drinking coffee, 1 glass per day. They had decaf coffee, which was thought to be safer than caffeinated coffee.

Oh I gotta tell you fellows who are coffee addicts and are pregnant now, this doesn't hold true. Decaffeinated coffee is NOT any safer than caffeinated coffee.

It has been known though, that coffee drinking in early pregnancy is linked with miscarriage. Coffee drinking later in pregnancy is associated with low birth weight of the baby.

The current study by Danish researchers, was performed on preggars drinking caffeinated and decaffeinated instant coffee from about 20 weeks of gestation. The results showed that there is no differences in birth weight or prematurity, despite the fact that the caffeinated coffee group had about 180mg of caffeine more per day. And for preggars who drank caffeinated coffee and smoked, they had smaller babies.

So, to all my pregnant friends, please steer clear from coffee. Also avoid tea or chocolate whenever possible. Subsitute with fruit juices instead. Do the best we can do as a mom, and we will have nothing we could regret about in the future

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