Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet

Continuing the caffeine theme today, I thought I should just put in a note about pregnancy.

Caffeine is metabolised by the liver, so the rate at which you get rid of caffeine is affected by the health of your liver. However, it also takes women on the oral contraceptive pill and pregnant women longer to metabolise caffeine, not because there’s anything wrong with their liver, but because the same group of liver enzymes metabolise both caffeine and the hormones of pregnancy .

Caffeine has been shown to reduce fertility, so if you are trying to fall pregnant it’s best to reduce the amount in your diet. And it’s not just women who needs to do this, as caffeine has been shown to reduce sperm quality and even one cup a day can impact your likelihood of falling pregnant.

The effects of caffeine in pregnancy are still disputed. There is some concern that caffeine can increase the risk of miscarriage and birth defects, however there has also been a lot of criticism of these research findings. At the moment, the NSW health guidelines are that:

Small amounts of caffeine are safe during pregnancy but excessive volumes may increase the risk of miscarriage and premature birth . . . NSW Health recommends that pregnant women limit themselves to 200mg of caffeine daily.

To work out how much coffee etc contains 200mg of caffeine, take a look at this post.

When pregnant and breastfeeding it’s wise to reduce your caffeine intake. Caffeine does enter breastmilk, so it can cause agitation and sleeping issues in your baby – which I suspect you DON’T want.

Image by Icey from Wikipedia.

15 June, 2007