Every week there's a new story to confuse mums-to-be.
Drink no alcohol at all if you're pregnant. Only have one drink a week but none during the first trimester. Cut down on eggs. No chocolate! Eat more cheese but not if it's soft! Drink more milk ... etc etc. As for alcohol..... one report criticises mums who drink whilst another is encouraging pregnant women to indulge in a drink now and again as it's good for their unborn child – particularly if it's a boy.
It really does get quite wearing hearing all these contradictory warnings.
The latest guidelines, issued after new studies into the effect of caffeine on low birth weights, recommend that Mums-to-be cut down even more on caffeine.
It seems that now they should stick to no more than 200mg of caffeine a day whereas previously the recommended limit was 300mg. Basically pregnant women shouldn’t have more than two cups of coffee or four cups of tea a day or so the Food Standards Agency (FSA) say.
The universities of Leeds and Leicester carried out tests on 2,500 pregnant women and found that women who drank more than 200mg of caffeine in a day were more likely to have babies with a smaller birth weight. Their spokesman said:
‘The body of research shows we get an adverse effect at a slightly lower caffeine intake than we previously thought, in terms of both reduced birth weight and increased instance of spontaneous abortion. The final decision mainly went on the birth weight with babies born at a weight appropriate for a baby a few weeks younger. If you’re small for gestational age, you’re more likely to have intellectual impairment and hyperactivity in later life.’
Incidentally, the new recommended limits are equivalent to five cans of cola, three energy drinks or five bars of chocolate. Scientists warned that take-away coffee often contains higher levels of caffeine. For example, a small café latte in Starbucks has 240mg of caffeine, so just one cup exceeds the guidelines.
But Andrew Wadge, chief scientist at the FSA, said: ‘This is new advice but these are not new risks. I want to reassure women that if you’re pregnant and have been following the previous advice, the risk is likely to be tiny.’
Pregnant women have been told not to cut out tea completely though. In fact, The Tea Advisory Panel spokeswoman Dr Carrie Ruxton said: ‘We mustn’t forget that tea is an important source of fluid for the British population. A cup of tea is 99 percent water – four in ten cups of the nation’s daily fluid intake comes from tea. Tea is also high in natural plant antioxidants which are accepted to deliver health benefits. If pregnant women cut out tea without consuming other fluid sources, they might risk dehydration. Or if they switched to soft drinks, sugar intakes could increase.’
She stressed that there was a ‘common misconception’ that tea contributes to dehydration because of its caffeine content. ‘In fact,’ she said, ‘research shows that a normal intake of tea is hydrating, not dehydrating.’ She said a moderate caffeine intake of around 300mg per day has been linked to improved mood and reduced fatigue. ‘My research, and indeed other studies, have also concluded that a moderate caffeine intake improves physical performance by increasing fat burning and reducing feelings of exhaustion.’
So who do you believe? What are you supposed to do? Which piece of advice do you take most notice of?
As far as alcohol is concerned, TheBabyWebsite recommends caution on the issue. The various reports on the effects of drinking during pregnancy can be confusing for women. In the absence of any clarity, it is probably better to avoid alcohol completely although a glass of wine on Christmas Day is unlikely to cause any harm.
TheBabyWebsite can only say 'Be sensible! Let common sense prevail and remember the word moderation.
November 2008
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