Pregnancy And Caffeine: Does Too Much Cause Complications?

Navigation: Main page » Babies & Parenting

 Print this page Submit articleComment article

Penny Stock Egghead as your secret weapo
Wall Street “Insiders” and brokers have a vested interest in you thinking that trading penny stocks is difficult and complicated. But in truth, it’s not. As Nathan Gold will show you, it’s actually as easy as clicking your mouse a few times… or making a quick phone call. Join the Penny Stock Egghead’s One-Trade-A-Week team today, and in addition to receiving first-word on soon-to-explode penny stocks… …you’ll get an instantly downloadable quick-start guide that will walk you through how to trade these ridiculously affordable stocks step-by-step. Even if you’ve never traded a stock in your life, now you can buy and sell these wealth-creating stocks just like the “big shot” investing pros.

Author: Barry J McDonald

Article source: http://www.articledeshboard.com/. Used with author's permission.

There are some women that will swear off anything that has caffeine in it from coffee, and soda to even chocolate. Then there are some of us who will still drink caffeine but cut back. Instead of drinking five cups of coffee a day, we might cut back to at least one cup of coffee to get us through the day.

Many women will stop their caffeine habit cold turkey out of the sheer fear of doing some sort of damage to the new life growing inside of them.

But if you listen to our mothers and grandmothers they will probably tell us that they drank the same amount of caffeine pregnant as they did when they were not pregnant and their children turned out fine. However a lot more research has been done since their time and studies are showing that too much caffeine can cause some complications such as preterm labor and/or low birth weight.

So how much caffeine is too much caffeine? Doctors are telling their patients that a moderate amount of caffeine will not harm their babies.

Even though caffeine does cross the placenta, anything less than 300 milligrams a day (an 8 ounce cup of strong coffee) will not do any harm. Anything over 300 milligrams puts your baby at risk and studies have also shown that women who drink more than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day during their first trimester have a slightly higher risk of a miscarriage.

Studies have also shown that women who had over 500 milligrams of caffeine a day had babies who had faster heart rates and faster breathing rates. These babies also spent more time awake in their first few days of life rather than peacefully sleeping after their long journey.

There are a number of other reasons why we women might want to cut back on the amount of caffeine we drink during pregnancy. For starters, it has no nutritional value. If there is ever a time for us to be aware of our nutritional needs it is when we are pregnant.

Second, caffeine is a stimulant which will increase your heart rate and can cause insomnia and headaches which can put some stress on your growing little one.

Third, caffeine can cause heartburn. If you have been pregnant before you know that heartburn can be a burden to begin with, and caffeine just makes it worse. Lastly it is a diuretic which means it can cause you to lose fluids which can put you at a risk of becoming dehydrated.

If you can not handle having only one cup of coffee a day, then you might be better off drinking no coffee at all. Stick with caffeine free sodas and even decaf coffee. Remember though that decaf coffee still contains small traces of caffeine so make sure you take that into consideration.

While it is not necessary for you to give up all caffeine through out the duration of your pregnancy, you should learn how to drink it in moderation or don't drink it at all.

If you like this article you'll love all the other great articles we have on pregnancy and nutrition over at  www.IDoItFromHome.com.  The site that everyone goes to for great advice that's FREE.