Tea, Coffee….Pregnancy

Women, during pregnancy often complaint to me about them missing their daily tea or coffee as they understand that caffeine should be completely avoided. On this, I would like to state that while women of course need to watch out for their caffeine intake, moderate amounts of tea and coffee may be consumed during pregnancy.

Caffeine is a stimulant and a diuretic that can cross the placenta to the baby. A baby in the womb cannot fully metabolism caffeine leading to changes in the baby’s sleep pattern or normal movement pattern in the later stages of pregnancy. High levels of caffeine intake during pregnancy can result in babies having a low birth weight, that can lead to development of lifestyle diseases in later life. It can also lead to miscarriages. Hence, during pregnancy, it is very important to keep the total caffeine intake to less that 200mg per day.

one mug of instant coffee: 100mg
one mug of filter coffee: 140mg
one mug of tea: 75mg
one can of cola: 40mg
one 250ml can of energy drink: 80mg
one 50g bar of milk chocolate: less than 10mg
one 50g bar of plain chocolate: less than 25mg
one 50g bar of 70-85% dark chocolate: 40mg