Drinking Coffee While Pregnant Is Unlikely To Harm A Child’s Brain Development
Good news for coffee lovers here: being pregnant doesn’t mean you have to give up caffeine for nine months. Many expectant mothers have concerns about how caffeine will affect their babies while they’re still in the womb.
But a new study from Norway says that it’s safe to sip away on your morning cup of joe (in moderation, of course). Researchers from the University of Oslo and the University of Queensland investigated the impacts of coffee consumption on children’s brain development during pregnancy.
Their findings suggest that drinking coffee in moderation during pregnancy is unlikely to harm a child’s brain development.
The researchers analyzed data from more than 71,000 Norwegian families participating in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study.
The wide range of data allowed the researchers to take a closer look at maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy and follow children’s developmental outcomes for up to eight years.
At first, the results appeared to indicate that higher maternal coffee consumption correlated to neurodevelopmental difficulties in kids, such as problems with attention, hyperactivity, and social communication.
However, when the research team incorporated other factors like alcohol use, smoking, income, and education, most of the associations disappeared.
The team also used an advanced genetic technique known as Mendelian randomization to further examine the relationship between coffee intake and child development.
“We used a method called Mendelian randomization, which uses genetic variants that predict coffee drinking behavior and can separate out the effect of different factors during pregnancy,” said co-lead author Dr. Gunn-Helen Moen from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience.
Drobot Dean – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“It mimics a randomized controlled trial without subjecting pregnant mothers and their babies to any ill effects. The benefit of this method is the effects of caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, and diet can be separated in the data, so we can look solely at the impact of caffeine on the pregnancy.”
The genetic analysis did not find much evidence that maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy led to neurodevelopmental difficulties in kids.
There was a slight association with social communication difficulties at age eight, but a deeper investigation suggested that other factors were responsible for the link rather than the coffee itself.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that consuming less than 200 milligrams of coffee per day is not linked to a higher risk of miscarriage or preterm birth.
According to Dr. Moen, Scandinavians are some of the world’s biggest coffee drinkers. They drink at least four cups daily.
This study focused on caffeine in coffee, but caffeine can be found in other foods and beverages as well, including tea, soft drinks, and chocolate. So, pregnant women should pay careful attention to their overall caffeine intake.
The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine.
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