Get ready for some flack from your barrista, pregnant ladies. A new study reported in the New York Times connects drinking 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day (200 milligrams is about 10 ounces of coffee or 25 ounces of tea) to a greater risk of miscarriage. The lead author of the study, Dr. De-Kun Li, says pregnant women should consider going decaf or at least cutting back to a cup for the first few months of being knocked up. The study consisted of interviews with 1,063 pregnant women about caffeine use, but by the time of the study, 102 had already miscarried. Later, 70 more miscarried, for a rate of 16 percent of the group, pretty typical for the population. The researchers found that "the miscarriage rate was 24.5 percent in the 164 women who consumed 200
milligrams or more per day. The increased risk was associated with
caffeine itself and not with other known risk factors like the mother’s
age or smoking habits."
Is there any hope for the latte-loving mamas of the world? Maybe. Dr. Carolyn Westhoff at Columbia University Medical Center says, "'Just interviewing women, over half of whom had already had their
miscarriage, does not strike me as the best way to get at the real
scientific question here. But it is an excellent way to
scare women.'" She says other risk factors like smoking have much clearer links to miscarriage, that most miscarriages are caused by chromosonal abnormalities, and that moderation in everything is key. I'll always be waiting for the day when they find that a joyless life, one devoid of the pleasures you love, like coffee, sushi, saunas, and the occasional drink, leads to increased risks in pregnancy.
