“Current World Health Organization guidelines say pregnant women should drink less than 300mg of caffeine or two to three cups per day,” Dr. Moen said.
“But that’s based on observational studies where it’s difficult to separate coffee drinking from other risk factors like smoking, alcohol, or poor diet.
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“We wanted to find out if coffee alone increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the research shows this isn’t the case.”
Dr. Hwang said coffee-drinking behavior is partly due to genetics, with specific genetic variants affecting how much coffee we drink.
“We showed that these genetic variants affect coffee consumption in the general population and pregnant women,” he said.
How Much Coffee can a Pregnant Woman Drink?
The researchers used Mendelian Randomization, eight genetic variants that predicted pregnant women’s coffee-drinking behavior, and examined whether these variants were also associated with birth outcomes.
“Because we can’t ask women to drink prescribed amounts of coffee during their pregnancy, we used genetic analyses to mimic a randomized control trial,” Dr. Hwang said.
The genetic analysis found no greater risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature birth for women who drank coffee.
“When it comes to diet during pregnancy, women are often advised to cut things out, but this study shows they can still enjoy coffee without worrying about increasing the risk of these pregnancy outcomes,” Dr. Hwang said.
The researchers emphasize the study only looked at specific adverse pregnancy outcomes, and it is possible caffeine consumption could affect other important aspects of fetal development.
“For that reason, we don’t recommend a high intake during pregnancy, but a low or moderate consumption of coffee,” Dr. Moen said.
This research used genetic data from the Coffee and Caffeine Genetics Consortium, the UK BioBank, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, and 23andMe.
It has been published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
Source: Eurekalert
