oops, my daily cup of Joe!
Hi this is
Monique Schoenhage speaking, I'm a Maternal
Fetal Medicine physician here at Tucson
Medical Center and this is What Do You Want
to Know. Today we're going to talk a
little bit about caffeine in pregnancy.
whoops
my daily cup of Joe! My favorite thing in
the morning. My little pick-me-up.
Sometimes I actually drink a cup of tea.
There's big differences between coffee
and tea. Tea has a substantially less
content of caffeine. An average cup of
coffee has anywhere from a hundred
milligrams to two hundred milligrams of
caffeine. This is important because the
American College of Obstetrics and
Gynecology recommends that we only
consume less than 200 milligrams of
caffeine daily. Does not say you cannot
drink coffee,
does not say that this amount will cause
any issues for you and your baby but it
does say and it does recommend that you
not overly indulge coffee. For example
some of the side effects that you may
experience the jitteriness,
trembling, a greater sense of awareness
or weakness. That's all common with use
of coffee but guess what, so is your baby
therefore a monster drink which is a
significant boost of caffeine, 5-hour
energy drinks, diet pills, of course not
recommended in pregnancy but anything
with a super abundant amount of caffeine
can equally affect your baby.
Particularly into the third trimester as
we think about monitoring the child or
looking at the child on ultrasound. A
significant amount of caffeine that you
may have taken in immediately prior to
those evaluations can affect our
recommendations and how your baby
appears.
200 milligrams of caffeine daily is
about a cup to a cup and a half of
coffee. It is 5 or 6 cups of tea, however. Some
of the common misconceptions about use
of caffeine and pregnancy include: it
will prevent me from getting pregnant, it
will cause miscarriages and it will
cause birth defects and/or growth
problems for my child. Again the American
College of Obstetrics and Gynecology
recommends use of less than 200 milligrams
of caffeine. At this level there have
been no effects either in trying to get
pregnant, achieving pregnancy, maintaining
your pregnancy or growth in your child.
