Coffee Is Safe During Pregnancy

Researchers from the University of Queensland have found that enjoying a daily latte or a black coffee causes no increased risk to pregnancy and that limited coffee consumption during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or premature birth. Researchers say that coffee drinking behaviour is partly due to genetics, with a specific set of genetic variants affecting how much coffee we drink. These genetic variants not only affect coffee consumption in the general population but also in pregnant women. The researchers used a method called Mendelian Randomisation which used eight genetic variants that predicted pregnant women’s coffee drinking behaviour, and examined whether these variants were also associated with birth outcomes. The genetic analysis found there was no greater risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or premature birth for women who drank coffee.