Hidden Caffeine Concerns for Expectant Moms

It's Not Just in Coffee and Tea Anymore

By Kelly Burgess

We all know that caffeine is an ingredient in coffee, tea, soda and chocolate. Most of us probably also know that advice regarding ingesting caffeine while pregnant has varied wildly in the past few years. Some experts suggest giving it up altogether. Some say as many as four cups of coffee a day won't hurt anyone.

For the pregnant woman who loves her tea, coffee or chocolate, these mixed signals can be even more distressing. At the moment the best impartial advice takes all these caffeine conclusions with a grain of moderation. The March of Dimes, while acknowledging that no one really knows whether caffeine, even in moderate amounts, is detrimental to pregnancy or not, suggests a safe level of caffeine to be no more than 300 milligrams a day or less, or about two cups of coffee.

"The research is still mixed," says Sara Cowlan, a nutritionist who practices in New York City. "If you can give up caffeine that's probably the best choice, but I've worked with a lot of women who have great difficulty in giving it up. I tell them that there's a lot of evidence that caffeine is OK in small amounts. Not everyone can give up everything."

Two cups a day was the advice Karen Spring of Deptford, N.J., was given by her doctors when she began undergoing infertility treatments. However, she chose to give up caffeine entirely because she felt it could optimize her chances of successful conception. Then, during both of her subsequent pregnancies, she continued to avoid caffeine.

"I had heard that caffeine could cause miscarriage, and I wanted to do whatever I could to minimize that risk," says Spring. "I am aware that there is caffeine hidden in foods, but I didn't really go out of my way to avoid those things. I did drink chocolate milkshakes on occasion. Other than chocolate, I didn't really think of caffeine being in anything else."

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• Talk about it!