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Older females in our families often dismiss this advice as absolute rubbish, and they tell us that they drank exactly the same amount of coffee for the entire duration of pregnancy, and their babies were all healthy. There has, however, been a lot of research since and low birth weights and premature births have been linked to caffeine.
The key question is; how much caffeine is safe? Well, the experts tell us that anything under 300mg a day is fine. This roughly equates to an 8 ounce cup.
Consume more that 300 mg a day and your baby could be at risk. Drink over the recommended amount during your first trimester and the risk of miscarriage is slightly raised.
As well as the above risks, there are many other reasons why you should cut down on, or cut out altogether, caffeine while pregnant. One of the main ones is that it provides no nutrition to your growing baby at all, and this is a time when good nutrition is value.
Yet another good reason for giving up caffeine is the fact that it is a stimulant. This means that it increases your heart rate and can also cause headaches and insomnia. Both if these can put unnecessary stress on your unborn child.
One of the most unpleasant parts of pregnancy is heartburn. Caffeine makes this even worse, so cutting it out will make it more manageable.
To sum it up, cutting out caffeine altogether is highly recommended, but if you feel that you still need your coffee, keep to guidelines of 300mg per day or less. Don't make the mistake of changing to decaf like many do, this still contains small amounts of caffeine, so by drinking lots of it you will exceed your daily recommended amount.
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