What are your thoughts on caffeine?
Aug 19, 2015 11:40:08 GMT -5
Post by honigbiene on Aug 19, 2015 11:40:08 GMT -5
I always feel defensive on this topic, because I drink 3-4 cups (1.5 mugs) of coffee each morning, and I don't decrease that amount during pregnancy. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first one is that (TMI warning) I have struggled all my life with constipation no matter how much fiber and water I shove down my throat. The only thing that helps me is coffee. During my first pregnancy, I heeded to all the panic inducing warnings and stopped drinking it. I ended up with such horrific hemorrhoids by my second trimester (and believe me, you do not want these already present when you have to push a baby out...your perineum will be the least of your discomforts following childbirth)
The second reason is that the studies are actually very inconsistent and most (if not all) of them poorly adjusted for confounding factors. After having completed degrees in both chemistry and health science and doing quite a bit of undergraduate research for both, I look at studies with much more scrutiny than I ever did before. I read through the majority of the studies on caffeine and pregnancy, and the only thing any of them ever found was a correlative association with coffee consumption and miscarriage. There are several problems with relying on correlation when we're talking about pregnant women drinking coffee:
1) We know that higher levels of nausea in pregnancy are associated with higher pregnancy success rates. Most pregnant women who are suffering from severe morning sickness find the thought of coffee revolting. The reduction of coffee consumption could be the RESULT of the healthy pregnancy, rather than the cause.
2) A statistically higher number of older women drink coffee than younger women. Older women have higher rates of miscarriage.
3) The largest study (which the ACOG recommendation is based on) showed a reduction in miscarriage ONLY with the mothers who reduced their coffee consumption to a lower amount than their pre-pregnancy level. This points towards mothers who altered their consumption based on morning sickness. A better study would have looked at women who never drank any coffee before or during pregnancy, and compared that group with mothers who drank the same amount of coffee before and during pregnancy, and mothers of the same age and underlying miscarriage risk would be compared to each other. This would have lowered the effect of at least a few of the confounding factors.
Also, the fact that the studies all seem to conflict with each other points to evidence of flaw. In science, one of the most basic tenants is that if a study cannot be repeated with similar results, it should be questioned.
Since the research is flawed with no real evidence that coffee is harmful, and since it affects me negatively to cut it out, I'm going to keep drinking what I'm drinking. If it doesn't bother you one way or another to cut out coffee and you just want to be on the safe side, I think that's totally reasonable. But I just wanted to offer another opinion, even if my explanation was quite long.
The second reason is that the studies are actually very inconsistent and most (if not all) of them poorly adjusted for confounding factors. After having completed degrees in both chemistry and health science and doing quite a bit of undergraduate research for both, I look at studies with much more scrutiny than I ever did before. I read through the majority of the studies on caffeine and pregnancy, and the only thing any of them ever found was a correlative association with coffee consumption and miscarriage. There are several problems with relying on correlation when we're talking about pregnant women drinking coffee:
1) We know that higher levels of nausea in pregnancy are associated with higher pregnancy success rates. Most pregnant women who are suffering from severe morning sickness find the thought of coffee revolting. The reduction of coffee consumption could be the RESULT of the healthy pregnancy, rather than the cause.
2) A statistically higher number of older women drink coffee than younger women. Older women have higher rates of miscarriage.
3) The largest study (which the ACOG recommendation is based on) showed a reduction in miscarriage ONLY with the mothers who reduced their coffee consumption to a lower amount than their pre-pregnancy level. This points towards mothers who altered their consumption based on morning sickness. A better study would have looked at women who never drank any coffee before or during pregnancy, and compared that group with mothers who drank the same amount of coffee before and during pregnancy, and mothers of the same age and underlying miscarriage risk would be compared to each other. This would have lowered the effect of at least a few of the confounding factors.
Also, the fact that the studies all seem to conflict with each other points to evidence of flaw. In science, one of the most basic tenants is that if a study cannot be repeated with similar results, it should be questioned.
Since the research is flawed with no real evidence that coffee is harmful, and since it affects me negatively to cut it out, I'm going to keep drinking what I'm drinking. If it doesn't bother you one way or another to cut out coffee and you just want to be on the safe side, I think that's totally reasonable. But I just wanted to offer another opinion, even if my explanation was quite long.