Pregnancy can be a time of great change and, during that period, many women worry about whether certain foods and drinks are safe. The good news is that, generally speaking, a well-balanced diet provides all the nutrients your baby needs to develop healthily. A common source of concern during gestation is caffeine; although moderate consumption (typically two cups per day of coffee or tea) usually poses no harm, excessive levels (over 10 eight-ounce cups a day) has been linked with lower birthweight outcomes as well as adverse gestation outcomes during gestation.

Researchers in Finland sought to ascertain whether the relationship was causal by conducting the Kuopio Birth Cohort (KuBiCo). This prospective cohort study followed women throughout their pregnancies and births; participants filled out food frequency questionnaires which allowed researchers to track maternal diet during gestation. Subgroup analyses were also performed to explore any specific correlations between caffeine consumption and pregnancy outcomes.

The findings of this study were encouraging; its authors concluded that moderate caffeine consumption during pregnancy does not appear to contribute to poor pregnancy outcomes. This contradicts previous research which suggested high caffeine intake might increase miscarriage risk and early-term delivery risk; but according to this new research study, their previous conclusions may have been affected by other factors like using unprotected sexual activity and smoking during gestation.

Caffeine is an all-natural stimulant found in coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks and energy beverages. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), caffeine should be considered a class C drug during pregnancy. Pregnant women are advised to limit their caffeine consumption daily to no more than 200 milligrams daily – roughly equaling one 12-ounce cup of brewed coffee containing this amount of caffeine.

A recent study suggests that caffeine consumption during gestation may influence the size of her child at birth. It analyzed 43,000 pregnant women from their first trimester onwards; most caffeine came from coffee and tea consumption; those who consumed more caffeine during their first trimester had reduced chances of giving birth early, also known as having a small for gestational age (SGA) baby.

This study is significant because it used a technique known as randomized controlled trial to investigate caffeine intake and its impact on pregnancy outcomes. A randomized controlled trial allows researchers to isolate factors causing specific effects by randomly assigning people into groups where all individuals remain equal except for any interventions being studied (for instance one group might be encouraged to consume more coffee than usual vs another) before comparing outcomes among them and seeing which group produces desired results.