If you're pregnant, it's normal to worry about whether the foods you're eating and drinking might have a negative impact on your unborn baby, including causing structural damage. There are several popular foods that you need to limit or avoid during pregnancy, including caffeine.
Caffeine
Of all the compounds that humans can ingest to alter physical and mental function, caffeine is among the most popular worldwide. It's a stimulant, meaning that it activates the "fight or flight" branch of the nervous system, more scientifically called the sympathetic branch. This causes your heart rate and respiration rate to increase, and sends more blood to the muscles. You also feel more alert and awake when you drink caffeine because of the stimulation.
Pregnancy
During pregnancy, there are foods you need to avoid because they contain toxins that might harm your developing baby. Caffeine is among these; research suggests that caffeine in large quantities can increase your risk of miscarriage in early pregnancy, explain Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz in their book "You: Having A Baby." Later in pregnancy, caffeine doesn't cause miscarriage but might restrict fetal growth, which can lead to preterm labor and low birth weight.
Structure
Many decades ago, scientists worried that caffeine was a mutagen -- meaning it caused mutations -- or teratogen, meaning it caused birth defects. This hypothesis was based on the chemical structure of caffeine. In fact, some studies did find that caffeine had the ability to affect the structure of developing embryos, notes Dr. John Mulvihill in a 1973 publication in "Teratology." The amounts of caffeine required to give these results, however, were far greater than a human would ever take in. Caffeine hasn't ever been shown to have mutagenic or teratogenic effects even in the largest quantities that a human might consume.
General Guidelines
In general, it's safe to say that caffeine won't affect the structure -- or the genetic material -- of your unborn baby; however, it's fully possible that if you drink large quantities of caffeine you could negatively impact your pregnancy. As such, Drs. Roizen and Oz recommend limiting caffeine during pregnancy, or avoiding it altogether. It's probably reasonable to drink a total of 200 mg of so of caffeine each day -- about one to two cups of coffee -- but you might want to avoid larger quantities.
References
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
- "Teratology"; Caffeine as teratogen and mutagen; J. Mulvihill; 1973
