If you're pregnant, you need to be careful about what you put in your body. The compounds you consume not only affect you, but some of them also can pass through to your fetus via the placenta, which might harm your unborn baby. Caffeine is one of the compounds you should limit during pregnancy.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a stimulant compound, which is one of the reasons that caffeinated beverages -- coffee, tea and some sodas -- are so popular as pick-me-ups. When you consume caffeine, it stimulates your "fight or flight" nervous system. This increases your attention and makes you feel more awake. It also increases your heart rate and the rate at which you breathe to a very small degree.
Your Fetus
While caffeine can affect your respiration rate, it doesn't affect your fetus' breathing at all because fetuses don't breathe. Instead, your fetus gets oxygen through the placenta. When you inhale, oxygen moves from your lungs into your bloodstream and travels to your body cells. Oxygenated blood passes through vessels on your side of the placenta and diffuses into your baby's blood, which flows through separate vessels in the placenta. The oxygenated blood then flows into your baby through the umbilical vein, making respiration unnecessary -- and pointless, since there's no oxygen to breathe in your uterus -- for a fetus.
Breathing And Newborns
While a fetus doesn't breathe air, babies in utero nevertheless move amniotic fluid in and out of their lungs. This doesn't help oxygenate the blood, but it exercises the muscles of respiration. It's possible -- but hasn't been studied -- that your fetus "breathes" amniotic fluid at a faster rate when you consume caffeine. Researchers Jacob Aranda and colleagues reported in a 1983 article in the "Journal of Pediatrics" that caffeine increases the respiration rate in newborns.
Other Concerns
The minimal increase in your respiration rate when you drink caffeine during pregnancy is of no concern from a safety standpoint, but caffeine during pregnancy can increase your risk of miscarriage, and in your third trimester, increases your risk of a small baby and a preterm labor. Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz recommend limiting caffeine during pregnancy. Your obstetrician can help you determine how much caffeine is OK, but many obstetricians recommend no more than 200 to 300 mg per day.
References
- "Journal of Pediatrics"; Effect of caffeine on control of breathing in infantile apnea; J. Aranda et al; 1983
- “You: Having A Baby”; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
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