During the pregnancy the women should fallow a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle in order to provide all the proper conditions for the development of the baby. Some women respect the indications of the health care providers and others don’t. The most important thing during the pregnancy is the health of the baby and to give birth to a healthy baby.
The subject of this article is very interesting caffeine during pregnancy. All most all people associate the caffeine only with coffee and, in fact, caffeine is a stimulant found in many foods, beverages and some medications, caffeine is naturally produced by a variety of plants and then added in foods and beverages for flavor.
The pregnant women aren’t recommended to consume more than 200 milligrams (mg) of caffeine per day, because a recent study shows that women that consume more than 200 milligrams (mg) of caffeine per day are twice as likely as women who consume no caffeine to have a miscarriage.
The sources of the caffeine are multiple because it may be found in coffee, tea, beverages, sodas, foods and chocolate, coffee-flavored products, such as yogurt and ice cream, chocolate syrup and hot cocoa, so pregnant women or women who try to get pregnant should be aware of which beverages and foods consume in order to limit the daily consume of caffeine.
The products that contain caffeine have different amount of caffeine in their components, for example: brewed coffee contains the highest amounts of caffeine of 137 mg per 8-ounce cup, instant coffee contains about 76 mg per 8-ounce cup, caffeinated soda contains about 37 mg, chocolate generally contains low amounts of caffeine, tea contains about 37 mg, etc.
As I said before there are some medicines that contain caffeine, and those medicine who contain caffeine are the medicines that are used to relief the pain relief, migraines, colds and delaying sleep. The pregnant women should not use any medicine during the pregnancy and if they have to take any medicine they should consult their health care provider and avoid consuming the medicines that contain caffeine. Even herbal products, used as medicines contain certain amounts of caffeine and pregnant women should avoid consuming herbal products because their safety in pregnancy has not been studied.
Caffeine is a stimulant that increases the alertness, the blood pressure (slightly), the heart rate and the urine production. Pregnant women may be more sensitive to caffeine because it takes longer to clear caffeine from the body than on persons who aren’t pregnant. During pregnancy, caffeine crosses the placenta and reaches the fetus. Caffeine may decrease blood flow to the placenta, which may harm the baby.
The recent studies show two main risks of caffeine during pregnancy:
According to a Danish study women who drink four or more cups of coffee a day may be at increased risk of having a stillborn baby.
Women should take into consideration all the risk factors that may put in danger the healthy of their babies from foods, drinks, coffee, sweets to cigarettes, drugs, medicines.