Starbucks Did NOT Cause My Miscarriage

Okay I totally bit that title off of another blog I read cause I loved it! Anyhoo......

There is a lot of hype going around about the the link caffeine has to miscarriages. Here's a brief article I found regarding this topic:

"High doses of daily caffeine during pregnancy – whether from coffee, tea, caffeinated soda or hot chocolate – cause an increased risk of miscarriage, according a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

The research appears in the current online issue of American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

While previous research showed a link between caffeine consumption and miscarriage, this is the first study to thoroughly control for morning sickness, which typically causes many women to avoid caffeine.

The study, which looked at 1,063 pregnant Kaiser Permanente members in San Francisco from October 1996 through October 1998, examined the caffeine effect among women who never changed their pattern of caffeine consumption during their pregnancy. Women who consumed 200 mg or more of caffeine per day (two or more cups of regular coffee or five 12-ounce cans of caffeinated soda) had twice the miscarriage risk as women who consumed no caffeine.

The increased risk of miscarriage appeared to be due to the caffeine itself, rather than other possible chemicals in coffee because caffeine intake from non-coffee sources such as caffeinated soda, tea and hot chocolate showed a similar increased risk of miscarriage."

Now if you read that carefully there are two KEY factors in this article. Allow me to show you:

"High doses of daily caffeine during pregnancy..."

".....the caffeine effect among women who never changed their pattern of caffeine consumption during their pregnancy."

This does not apply to those women who DO change their caffeine consumption or do NOT consume high doses daily. I did cut caffeine completely out of my diet when I was pregnant.

One thing that must be understood is that for the most part, anything is okay for a pregnant women in moderations (except alcohol but that's a given). I hope this enlightens you on the issue of caffeine and miscarriages. It is important to cut down or cut out but also know, that caffeine is not the sole cause or #1 cause of miscarriages.