Effects of Caffeine Ingestion during Pregnancy

Abstract

We studied the effects of caffeine ingestion during pregnancy. A total number of 9,921 healthy pregnant women with a gestational age after 24 weeks were subjected to the study. The women who drank more than 5 cups of coffee per day had a high incidence of impending abortion, premature labor, and fetuses small for gestational age. The heavy coffee drinkers among the pregnant women had high rates of spontaneous abortion, chromosomal abnormality and congenital multi-anomalies. However, we would like to stress that the multiple socioeconomic variables might be more important than any direct effect of caffeine.

Caffeine intake during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes: a systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis

“…The pooled estimate of relative risk from linear dose-response meta-analysis was 1.14 (95% CI: 1.10 to 1.19) per 100 mg/day of caffeine (P < .001) (figure 2A). Five of the six studies that could not be included in meta-analyses supported this direction of association, with all but one statistically significant [33][34][35][36][37], and the remaining study finding no evidence of any association [38].…”

Caffeine intake and pregnancy outcomes: a meta-analytic review

“…Twenty-two studies (Mau & Netter, 1974;van den Berg, 1977;Arnandova & Katsulov, 1978;Soika, 1979;Kuzma & Sokol, 1982;Linn et al, 1982;Furuhashi et al, 1985;Watkinson & Fried, 1985;Beaulac-Baillageon & Desrosiers, 1987;Martin & Bracken, 1987;Muñoz et al, 1988;Brooke et al, 1989;Caan & Goldhaber, 1989;Fenster et al, 1991;Olsen et al, 1991;Peacock et al, 1991;McDonald et al, 1992;Godel et al, 1992;Mills et al, 1993;Fortier et al, 1993;Larroque et al, 1993;Shu et al, 1995) focused on birth weight. Most of them showed, in the crude analysis, that coffee or caffeine was related to lower birth weights (Mau & Netter, 1974;van den Berg, 1977;Arnandova & Katsulov, 1978;Soika, 1979;Linn et al, 1982;Furuhashi et al, 1985;Watkinson & Fried, 1985;Martin & Bracken, 1987;Caan & Goldhaber, 1989;Godel et al, 1992;Fortier et al, 1993;Mills et al, 1993), the majority of these differences being statistically significant.…”

“…Most of them showed, in the crude analysis, that coffee or caffeine was related to lower birth weights (Mau & Netter, 1974;van den Berg, 1977;Arnandova & Katsulov, 1978;Soika, 1979;Linn et al, 1982;Furuhashi et al, 1985;Watkinson & Fried, 1985;Martin & Bracken, 1987;Caan & Goldhaber, 1989;Godel et al, 1992;Fortier et al, 1993;Mills et al, 1993), the majority of these differences being statistically significant. Dose-response effects were demonstrated in eight studies (Mau & Netter, 1974;van den Berg, 1977;Martin & Bracken, 1987;Brooke et al, 1989;Fenster et al, 1991;Peacock et al, 1991;McDonald et al, 1992;Fortier et al, 1993).…”

Intake of caffeine and other methylxanthines during pregnancy and risk for adverse effects in pregnant women and their foetuses

“…The results are summarised in Table 47 and 48. In a Japanese study 9 921 healthy pregnant women were interviewed at week 24 of gestation about their caffeine ingestion during pregnancy (Furuhashi et al, 1985). The women were divided into five categories; those that consumed less than 5 cups of coffee per day during pregnancy, those consuming more than 5 cups of coffee per day, those consuming both coffee and green tea, those consuming only green tea, and those consuming neither coffee nor green tea (controls).…”

“…In the studies by Weathersbee et al (1977), Parazzini et al (1991Parazzini et al ( , 1994Parazzini et al ( , 1998, Armstrong et al (1992), Wilcox et al (1990) and Cnattingius et al (2000) the investigators limited their study base to patients with early foetal loss (before 12 weeks of gestation). Two studies were devoted to miscarriages only in late pregnancy (InfanteRivard et al, 1993;Furuhashi et al, 1985), whereas the remaining studies included both fairly early and late abortions.…”