Caffeine During Pregnancy

When I was pregnant with MetaBaby, I remember hearing either (1) don't drink any caffeine or (2) drink one or two cups per day. It was ambiguous, but since I wasn't hooked on caffeine, I just gave it up cold turkey. It was only really difficult on those days when I struggled in waking up...ugh.

But now there's a study confirming the dangers of caffeine during pregnancy. The strange thing is that caffeine in moderate amounts is actually dangerous.

"They found that women who consumed 200 milligrams or more of caffeine daily — the equivalent of two or more cups of coffee or five 12-ounce cans of soda — had twice the risk for miscarriage. Moreover, the study found that even those women who consumed less than 200 milligrams of caffeine daily had about 40 percent increased risk for miscarriage."

That's huge!

More important, 200 milligrams is hard to quantify because it can vary based on various things like the size of the cup of coffee, the roast of the bean, and how the coffee is brewed.

NPR's article listed the caffeine content of some of the more common sources of caffeine, which I found eye-opening.

Coffee & Energy Drinks
Starbucks Latte, 16 oz.: 150 mg
Coffee, brewed, 8 oz.: 95 mg
Red Bull, 8.3 oz.: 76 mg
Espresso, 1 oz.: 64 mg
Instant coffee, 8 oz.: 64 mg
Coffee, decaf, brewed, 8 oz.: 2 mg

Tea
Black tea, 8 oz.: 47 mg
Green tea, 8 oz.: 30-50 mg
Herbal tea, 8 oz.: 0 mg

Sodas
Mountain Dew, 12 oz.: 54 mg
Diet Coke, 12 oz.: 47 mg
Dr Pepper, 12 oz.: 41 mg
Pepsi, 12 oz.: 38 mg
Diet Pepsi, 12 oz.: 35 mg
Coca-Cola Classic, 12 oz.: 35 mg
Barq's Root Beer, 12 oz.: 23
7Up/Sprite, 12 oz.: 0 mg

Other
Excedrin, Extra Strength, 2 tablets: 130 mg
Hershey's Chocolate Bar, 1.55 oz.: 9 mg
Hot cocoa, 8 oz.: 8 mg
Chocolate milk, 8 oz.: 6 mg